CHAPTER 3: FREE FALL 2021
Chapter 3, Free Fall – sounds kind of like a theme park ride, right? Six Flags or Disneyland’s latest and greatest ride. Conquer the beast! Ride the Free Fall experience, get a t-shirt and a hat! Chapter 3, Free Fall is not a theme park ride, I assure you, but it is the scariest experience any of us can have in this lifetime. It is the realization that you have lost complete control in your life and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Anything. You are completely powerless and all that is you is tumbling out of control. this is the point you are out of options and nothing can be done. Your business, your life are out of your control. You may not realize it at the time, but you will. For me it was like I just fell off of a 79 story building. All is cool as I pass floor 54, the view is spectacular and the fresh air is lovely! We all know the end of the story. Free fall is an indisputable failure that can only be interrupted by God, at least in my case. What causes free fall?
Multiple abuses of fiduciary duty. Accepting t point negative I call it. What’s a point negative? Accepting the wrong thing, the incorrect thing, cosigning bad behavior, either yours or others until you simply do it one more time, the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. How many point negatives does it take to create a free fall? Nobody knows. Might be this one, might be the next. Will you get caught this time or not? In my case, I pushed it too far and I met what I call my origin of failure. The final point negative that sets a course, ….into freefall. And without God, everything is over. For me, it was all over and I had to start again. However, He did spare my actual life, so that I could have another chance. Great story for another day, okay?
Let’s give examples of point negative. Not picking up a check when people need to pay you, giving credit to customers when you’re not a bank. Lying, cheating, blaming others, not minding the store, not servicing your car, not paying your taxes, do I need to go on? Sure I do, drinking and driving, drinking and doing anything, just drinking and dying, drugs, gambling, dumb relationships, you’ve heard me speak of the four headless horseman? The demons that come after your head, yea, baby, alcohol, drugs, gambling, dumb relationships. You finally give out and lose your footing of solid ground. That last walk to the edge, I call it, the final point negative and your fall — Origin of failure. The stepping off into a free fall.
The point of no return. You’ve finally done it. You, your arrogance, inept attitude and ignorance has left you without a parachute and you’re going down. Right before that, you might think, “I’ve been through it before and it was okay,” you might even feel impervious to catastrophic failure. Like Teflon, it seems that all the crud seems to slip off and you get away with it one more time. Nobody believes it until they see the end …
Proverbs 26:12 ESV / 22 helpful votes
Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
How do you avoid free fall? Good question. Read the book, stay close to Christ. You avoid free fall by taking care of all relationships and gifts that you have been given, i.e. your family, business, mind, health, car, house, children, employees, law, the seven disciplines, the triangle. Find these lessons on the website. Employ wisdom, daily. Be honest, fair and an example of a good Christian. And repeat, stay close to Jesus Christ.
Psalm 119:105 ESV / 525 helpful votes
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Every one of us knows how to behave, yet we don’t, why? Paul says it best.
Romans 7:15-25 New International Version (NIV)
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.
Here’s three things I try to remember in your business and your home.
- Make adjustments in yourself, live by the rules and make things right when you’ve failed. Be consistent. Design all dealings honest and good for all parties. Not just good for you, good for them, not just good for them, good for you. Payment schedules that work.
- Study what the Bible says about all aspects of fairness and good living.
- Do an in-depth study of what makes your customers tick, personally and professionally. Be interested in them, grateful for every single one of them, do as much personal contact as humanly possible, so you can know them better than your competitors. Be helpful to those business associates in your life and work on honor, patience and understanding in all your affairs.
James 3:17
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.
Chapter 3, Free Fall. It’s short and real. Where the rubber meets the road. The Miracle is that you still have a business and you’re still alive! The blessing is every challenge of your life. Challenge makes you better, and wisdom comes from applied knowledge and experience.
“If you Quit integrating a better you, a lousy you will prevail.”
Stated by a man named Patrick, if you want to ask him about it, I’ll give you his number.
Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.
Chapter 3 FreeFall…, what’s the big take away?
Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You are all the recipient of that scripture, as am I. He saved me in a free fall, and clearly all of us on this phone. However, had I continued in my selfish ways, and had not recognized my Savior, or if I decide to go back and visit the old me, perhaps you will remember, as I do, the following scripture.
Proverbs 27:12 New International Version (NIV)
12 The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
What is simple mean in this scripture? It means Stupid. Stupid is very expensive. Fiduciary is hard, complicated, but a much better way. Freefall, Chapter 3 – operating without scripture, without a heart for stewardship, without honor, without Him. Call out His name and turn away from the ledge you might find yourself standing on. Amen.
