Not exactly the makeover I was looking for

A couple of years ago Scott and I went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class. If you’ve ever been through it you know that it is very enlightening and very convicting. We did pretty well following the principles, for a while anyway.

This weekend, the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Live event was held at the coliseum. There were a couple of others from church interested in going, and we certainly needed a refresher course, so we all went.

To be honest, the week prior to the event I wasn’t really that excited about going. It was a timing thing. If it had been some other weekend I might have gotten more excited about it. This weekend, however, was the one nearest my birthday and I wanted to spend some money on myself, not hear about how I should be saving every penny I have.

The event was 5 hours long and I stayed interested pretty much the whole time, even in those uncomfortable seats. The basic principles and even most of the examples haven’t changed much since the we first took the class, but it is still, dare I say it, right on the money. And of course, Dave still has that charisma.

One of the key scriptures Dave uses and bases his financial philosophy on is Proverbs 6:1-5.

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

The scripture was printed in the worksheet booklet they handed out at the event. When Dave read it out loud, he emphasized a couple of words by reading them slowly and repeating them. I circled them on the worksheet because they struck me as if I had never read them before. Dave was using the NKJV; it says “deliver yourself.” My NIV says “free yourself.” Free yourself. Free yourself.

There is a qualifier in it. This scripture is specifically talking about when you get yourself into a fix. And, even more specifically, when you get yourself into a mess because of things you said. Oh, my.

How many times have I agreed to do something that I wasn’t entirely sure I could follow through on, and then when I failed went crying to God to get me out of the mess? Too many to count.

Yes, I believe that God has all the strength and power to get me out of any circumstance I find myself in. But it looks like to me His Word says that as a responsible human being, I AM responsible. I am responsible for my actions; responsible for my words. I am responsible for working it out and getting myself out of the mess.

And the Word says the first instruction to getting out of the mess is to humble yourself.

It’s quite simple, really. But not always easy.

Kind of like those Dave Ramsey Financial Peace principles.