Twenty Years Later - I Feel Rich

Proverbs 18:22 ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of Yahweh.’

Essentially, my wife and I officially became an “item” on New Year Eve 1991. It was the day we realized and determined to be together for the rest of our lives.

We didn’t have much then. We were both in debt, had crummy low-paying jobs and were renting the bottom-half of a duplex in a questionable part of Milwaukee’s northside. Sue brought a beautiful squirt-sized bundle of joy into the relationship from a former marriage. This young lady became my daughter instantly and the three of us had so much fun together.

I can’t really quantify that time properly. We didn’t worry about anything. We were so foolishly carefree. We lived day by day and tomorrow didn’t matter.

Last night, Sue and I spent a few hours reminiscing. We looked back over our life together – those fantastic twenty years.

It’s been a heck of a ride. We’ve lived in six different places, all in the Milwaukee area. We got married and had two more beautiful daughters. We’ve made many new friends, lost too many family members, and endured a complicated foreclosure. We’ve worked some good jobs and at times, made a lot of money. We worked with more foster children than we can count or remember and have been part of the adoption of at least twelve infants. We adjusted our lifestyle at various times to operate a daycare in the house and to home school our kids. We stood proud as our eldest daughter graduated from Alverno and married the man she loves, her womb currently carrying inside it our expected grandson.

We have been blessed with so many extended children; so many young men and women who now call us “Mom and Dad” and know they can come to us for support anytime they need it. We have been there as these children matured, graduated from high schools and universities, married and gave birth to children. We were even blessed enough to stand by one special couple and their children as they served in the military.

Over the years I’ve played a lot of soccer and coached a lot of soccer, and our family has been blessed to be the part of so many other families through this particular tie.

There has been so much good and so much bad, and so much life, and so much death. It can all be so overwhelming at times. It’s been twenty years; twenty years.

And then my wife said something that summed it all up. Sue said, “I feel rich.”

She’s right you know. To be honest with you, not a whole lot has changed for us from what it was twenty years ago. We have a beautiful condo now with the help of my loving and caring uncle. I currently work at a crummy low-paying job doing almost exactly the same thing I was doing twenty years ago. We have debt and we have a credit rating that would make many people cry.

But we are rich.

We’ve never wanted for anything. Yes, we’ve lost things and things have been really tough at times, but we’ve never wanted for anything. The Lord has always provided and made a way. When it looked as though we would be living in our car at one point, a compassionate apartment manager who had experienced similar hard times in his past, listened to my story the first time we met, and on a handshake and a promise, gave us a place to stay. I’ll never forget him, or his son, who both became like family to us.

Looking back at every day, and in every way, the Lord has been there. The old saying about the footsteps in the sand are true. When we don’t see two sets of prints, it is He that carries us.

I’ll never forget the lessons of my life for in them has been one constant – one perfect, loyal, supportive, munificent, patient person walking beside me. No matter what the day brought, good or evil, she has been there. She has never faltered; she has never grown weak or wanted to throw in the towel. She ALWAYS has the brightest smile for everyone.

She is my reminder every day that the Lord has blessed me with a gift no one else in the world has.

Proverbs 31:10-12 ‘Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.’

Many of you may have more money and better paying jobs than we do. Many of you will probably have more of this world’s resources at your disposal than we ever will.

I know many still look at us in astonishment – How the heck are they still making it, and why are they still together.

They just don’t see. We have the Lord and we are determined that the Lord is enough.

In Sue, I have someone who reminds me daily that the Lord is good, and the Lord loves me. He ALWAYS has my back and I don’t have to have any doubts concerning the future. Just like the first years together, I can be foolishly carefree.

Matthew 6:21 ‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’

We may look as poor as church mice. We may look like we are always on the brink of losing everything and we probably are. But my wife is right; we are rich. We know, without even the slightest doubt, that our treasure is not “upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.’

We have adopted the motto that made us happy when we first became an “item.” We live day by day.

Matthew 6:34 ‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow. . . ‘

Today is New Year’s Eve 2011. Tonight, many of you will rejoice, sing and remember the past year. You will make resolutions and will look with yearning towards the future.

I’ll tell you right now, I don’t give a darn about the future or tomorrow. I am living in the now.

Tonight I will be right here at home embracing my ruby, my queen. I will be looking lovingly into her eyes and I will be humbled by her smile.

Sue, we are rich for we have twenty years of treasure waiting for us in heaven. I pray the Lord give us at least twenty more years to increase that wealth. We are already so rich. No one in this world has any idea how rich we are.

Praise Ye Yah! His grace and His mercy towards this lowly sinner are immeasurable.

I pray you all find in 2012 a treasure such as ours. Nothing on this earth can compare to it. And you just won’t know it until you find it.

Amen