My friend and mentor, Maxey Jarman, gave generously to Christian causes. When his fortune reversed later in life I asked him if he thought about the millions he had given away. His reply was classic — "I never lost a dime of what I gave away; I only lost what I kept. In 1976 I asked Maxey to join me in a meeting with a man a man who had suffered serious financial losses. He was unable to attend but he sent me a letter outlining his thoughts on financial reverses. The clarity demonstrates that wisdom is timeless and ever profitable. For your benefit I want to share this personal correspondence.
"My financial reverses occurred at about the same time I retired, so that my income, which had been quite substantial, was reduced in two different ways in a very substantial way. Since I was at the retirement age, it is possible that I would look at it somewhat differently than if I had been younger and were faced with the problem of trying to build up anew.
However, the very considerable reduction in income that I had, I believe, was a great blessing to me. First of all it made me re-evaluate my ideas about what are worthwhile things. Material things are passing; and while we all start out wanting a lot of them, actually after we've had a lot of material things we begin to realize that they are not worth that much anyhow and become a burden rather than something to enjoy. A time of reversal is a good time for a person to take stock of himself to see what he really wants out of life, whether he wants things that have eternal value, real value, or whether he particularly wants to have the kind of things that the world puts great value on. It makes a person begin to think about the things he's doing, the way he's spending money, realizing he's going to have to make adjustments, and then eventually realizing that some of the things he's eliminating were in reality burdens rather than being really worthwhile.
One of the areas of adjustments has to do with contributions. It's easy to say to cut out contributions, but I think that's on of the areas that we should be particularly careful about and to try to continue a percentage of income that will run 15-20 percent of income before taxes for all contributions. I think contributions are more necessary for the individual giving them than they are for the organizations that receive them, for the very reason that money and material things are dangerous things and it's extremely important to be generous in gifts and be sure we're not a slave to our material things of that they become too important. Liberal contributions are one way of taking care of this problem.
It's easy for a person who has had reverses to feel sorry for himself. Self pity, however, is one of those things that is probably a considerable spiritual sin that a person needs to be very careful about. Whenever we find ourselves being sorry for ourselves we need to refer back to Ephesians 5:20 that says, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." That means for those things that seem to be unpleasant and hard and unjust but which the Lord can use to help us to grow in a spiritual sense and a better understanding of the real values of life.
It's also difficult to avoid feeling resentment toward somebody else who might have been responsible or at least partly responsible for some of the reverses that we've had. Resentment is also a sin. In the Lord's Prayer, Luke 11:4, it tells us to forgive everyone that is indebted to us and I think that means somebody who may have treated us unjustly or thoughtlessly or in perhaps a hard-boiled fashion that we didn't appreciate. We've got to get things like self pity and resentment out of our mind if we're going to be able to pray to the Lord and let Him lift us up and use us. These kinds of things do not come easy and do not come fast. Some people undoubtedly would be in worse shape than I was and have their entire income eliminated. It's a good time for examination, of oneself, one's activities, and of one's sense of values. Sometimes the Lord has to bring some of these things on us, although of course we also bring them on ourselves by our desires or habits that we've gotten ourselves into, but the Lord can use these situations in a great way."
These principles have been shared with many executives who have come to me for counsel during times of financial adversity. When I have had substantial financial losses the advice of Oswald Chambers, "sit loose to things" has been of immeasurable help. We sit loose to things and close to people.
