TERRILL WE’RE BROKE

“Terrill, we’re broke!”

 In today’s blog, I will share with you a story of one of those times I didn’t obey the word of God and tell you what it cost me.

In 1988, Terrill and I, along with another couple, opened a pizzeria in the college town of West Nyack, NY. It didn’t take long for the business to explode; we were producing $6,500 - $7,000 in sales per week in just over three months of being opened. We were flowing in cash; I could take a salary of $1,000 - $1,500 a week, sometimes even more if I wanted. That was a lot of cash back then; I could pay all the bills and have enough left over to wine and dine my new wife. Life was good and the business was growing. I thought this was what life was going to look like, that is, until Jesus stepped in. I began feeling an emptiness, sadness, and sometimes even depression. I thought to myself, “What could possibly be wrong?” It was at this time that Jesus reminded me that He had called me into full-time ministry as a vocation.  Nothing else would satisfy me: not owning my own business, not making a lot of money, and surely not any material possession.

Things had to change. I couldn’t live like this any longer; I knew God had a call on my life and I had to surrender to it. Finally, one night when Terrill came to pick me up after work, I said, “I can’t do this any longer. We have to give up the business and start to pursue full-time ministry service.” Terrill agreed, and that’s when our whole world was turned upside down. I couldn’t take a buyout from our partners because I was choosing to leave. I felt so guilty for leaving a busy, flourishing business that I just gave our half of the business to our partners and went on my way.

I went from making thousands of dollars a week to literally making nothing a week. My pastor/mentor wanted to help us financially, so he asked the deacon board to give me a job cleaning the church. My salary was $125 a week. We were very grateful, but that obviously wasn’t going to pay for the rent, food, gas, etc., so we got behind in all our bills faster then a New York second.

We began to feel the financial pressure building up; it was getting unbearable, so we went into prayer. We went into the kitchen together, looked out the window, and prayed: “Lord, we will never turn back. We will serve You, even if we get evicted from this apartment, go bankrupt, have our car repossessed, and live in a tent eating government cheese!” One of the first lessons I learned was to be careful what you say because God hears and will test your resolve. This test is not really for Him because He knows your heart, but it is for you. He wanted us to learn to say only what we meant, so He put us to the test.

Shortly after that prayer, we got an eviction notice, the car was repossessed, we went bankrupt, and we were eating government cheese. We went bankrupt because I never legally got my name taken off of the partnership papers. My ex-partner fell on hard times and just shut the doors of the pizzeria. I was still a legal partner, so the creditors came after me for $45,000 of fixture and food supply debt. They had my $125 a week salary garnished at 10% and were going to keep pursuing me for the money owed them. I panicked. How was I ever going to pay off that much debt? I went to my pastor and asked him, “Should a Christian go bankrupt?” I told him the story and how we were now responsible for $45,000 of debt from the pizzeria that we left over a year ago. When I left the business to my partner it was making good money; we were paying off the build out costs and had thousands in the bank. I asked, “Should I be responsible for that debt?” I told him whatever he felt was morally right, I would do it. If he and our elder board said it was my responsibility, I would pay it over my lifetime. If they said it was fine to go bankrupt, I would do that. They deliberated over the facts and concluded I wasn’t responsible for the pizzeria closing its doors or for the debt it left behind. I went bankrupt, which caused me to have bad credit for seven years. To me, that was a much lesser penalty then being in huge debt for possibly the rest of my life. This situation didn’t stop the Lord from rebounding us financially. Today, we are debt free, tithing, supporting four missionary families, and giving to individuals needs as we can.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Partnerships aren’t necessarily wrong, but never enter into an agreement unless the Lord has ordained it. Proverbs 22:26 says, “Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or put up security for (another’s) debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.”

This can also mean to be very careful about co-signing for another’s loan, and I would add, be careful with whom you go into partnership. I would say from experience, never co-sign for anyone’s loan. You may just wind up paying for something you don’t even possess. The Lord feels very strongly about this; read Proverbs 6:1-5.

 Also, never be unequally yoked. II Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

We use this passage in reference to dating and marriage, and that is an appropriate use, but it also can be used in the context of a business relationship, as well. I know there are Christians and non-Christians who may have had a successful business partnership but that would be an exception and not a rule.

My intention is not to tell you what to do, but to give you some wisdom from my life experience that you can ponder and hopefully help you not make some of the same mistakes I have made.

 I would say that we shouldn’t use bankruptcy just to get ourselves out of consumer debt. If we dug ourselves into a huge financial hole because of consumer spending, we should get some counsel and a proven plan to pay off all our debt. I did, and I will tell you stories of how I did it in future blogs. Bankruptcy is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, and it would be morally wrong, for example, to charge up $10,000 or more in consumer debt and then go bankrupt just to free yourself from your responsibility to pay it back. Yes, there are circumstances where we morally could go bankrupt, that’s why the law exists – to give people who fall on hard times a second chance, but we should get Godly and financial counsel before we make a decision.

Proverbs 22:7 – “…and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

Psalm 37:21 – “the wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.”

Lastly, a big lesson I learned is to not blame other people for your bad decisions. Take 100% responsibility for your part in a bad situation.

Next time, I want to talk about having nothing, but yet having all we needed.