{"id":151,"date":"2010-01-08T14:49:44","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T19:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/know-your-vitals"},"modified":"2010-01-08T14:49:44","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T19:49:44","slug":"know-your-vitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/know-your-vitals.html","title":{"rendered":"Know your financial vitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Steth\" “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;\u00a0for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations”<\/em> (Proverbs 27:23-24 NIV).<\/p>\n

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men”<\/em> (Luke 2:52).<\/p>\n

For the last several years I’ve taken a study break the last week of the year. During these breaks I’ve developed certain habits to get myself focused and ready to hear from God. One of the habits that I’ve practiced is the discipline of reflection.<\/p>\n

I’ve rooted this habit with a practice that begins with certain concrete questions. These questions\u00a0involve taking stock of what’s happened in the last year and where things stand in the present. I compare outcomes with goals\u00a0that were\u00a0set for the previous year. I am brutally honest with myself. I’m convinced that we must know where we’ve been and where we are now, before we can get to where we want to go. Just like a physician checks our vital signs before he offers any medical advice, we must know our vitals.<\/p>\n

The writer of the gospel of Luke was a physician. He took note that Jesus grew in four ways: wisdom, stature, in favor with God, and in favor with men. In other words, Jesus grew 1) mentally, 2) physically, 3) spiritually, and 4) socially.<\/p>\n

My habit of reflection involves checking my vitals in those four areas. I call them my Luke 2:52 goals.<\/p>\n

As I look at these goals from year to year, I often sense God leading me to lean into one of the areas a bit more. Last year, after turning 50, I really sensed that God wanted me to get serious about my health, so I could have the strength to continue doing what He has called me to do. So, I had a complete physical, an endoscopy, colonoscopy (not fun), had my gall bladder removed, and started working out 3 days a week at the YMCA. I feel a lot better about myself and I feel more energy to do God’s work.<\/p>\n

This year, I sensed a need to lean into financial fitness more. I usually list this under the “mental” category because money management has a lot to do with mental attitude, planning (budgeting), knowledge about money, and habits.<\/p>\n

So, as part of this step I answer four questions to check my financial fitness vitals. They are: What\u00a0do I\u00a0…<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Earn<\/li>\n
  2. Spend<\/li>\n
  3. Own<\/li>\n
  4. Owe<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Just like stepping on the scales, it’s not that much fun checking your financial vitals, but wisdom demands it. We really can’t begin to improve our situation until we recognize our current condition.<\/p>\n

    Knowing our vitals, we can admit our need for change (biblical word: repentance). Then, we can begin to pray, plan (budget), and act on what is needed to improve.<\/p>\n

    I’m convinced that we as Christians can depend on God for help in this. Jesus had a lot to say about how we handle money. I believe that He wants us to live with such fitness in this area that it models hope to our economically challenged world today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;\u00a0for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations” (Proverbs 27:23-24 NIV). “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). For the last several years I’ve taken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}