Fast-forward 8 years to April 2008.
I attended a men’s meeting at church on a Saturday morning. I was late, just made it for offering then the introduction of the guest speaker. The guy was Lee Domain, a Christian CEO worth millions of dollars. He was very plain spoken but had incredible stories and testimonies of God ordering his steps and the Holy Spirit leading him through business deals worth 10s of millions. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and connected with his message of being a King. In the Old Testament the King went to battle and brought back the spoils to the priest. The Kings in today’s world step into the market place and bring the spoils back to the church to advance the Kingdom of God. To be a King you must focus on the task at hand and break a “spirit of lack.” Lack breeds self-preservation to the point where you are so wrapped up in your own financial stress you miss the hand of God and the heart of God. As the morning rolled on Lee prayed that if we had any idols they had to be removed before God could work. He defined an idol as anything other than God that we have found our identity in. I was quick to check that off my list….no icons on my dash, no buda in my garden. Then the Holy Spirit took me back to offering time an hour earlier. I remembered as I sat down 2 ushers strutted to the front decked out from head to toe in Harley branded everything…it bummed me out that I could not have the confidence their biker status had given them. Harley Davidson was an idol to me, in the top of my closet were stacks of HD rally shirts I refused to wear. I had placed “Harley-Davidson” in such a high place I was not worthy of even wearing a t-shirt…. Once the meeting was over I called my wife to report on my revelation and told her I needed to get rid of everything Harley and buy a Yamaha. She rebuked me….no joke, she told me to shut up and she never wanted to hear me say that again. She has been standing on the promise of a harvest from that seed, and “you will have a Harley nothing less!” Sunday after church I prayed and knew I had to throw away all the Harley stuff, I had to de-brand my heart. I found two big garbage bags and went through my closet….at least 2 dozen shirts, even the cool boot-leg Sturgis shirt bought on the side of the road in South Dakota went in the trash. I tied up the bag and started reading Lee’s book (Pearls of the King).
Monday morning I loaded up the bags and hit the dumpster on the way to the office. I was good with all the events of the weekend and it was business as usual, or so I thought. Late that evening, I got a call from my good friend Jim out in Abilene, informing me the Harley I had wanted was for sale by an Air Force guy stationed out of the country. As the story went, this guy had 2 Harleys in storage and needed to move them. The bikes were a 2001 HD Nightrain(my favorite HD since ’98) and a 2002 Road Glide. I did a 100 laps around the coffee table trying to talk myself into buying the Nightrain. “ARGH, what’s the deal?” My heart rate went up as I wondered why all these events came together in less than 72hours? NO, I made up my mind; No, I will not get my family in a big debt. I sat back down and continued reading the book. I could only read a few words before my mind would start to wander… it was a fight to get a single chapter read. All at once I closed the book and said out loud, “I will buy both bikes and sell the second to pay for the first.” Just like that, it came out. I had a little experience in buying and selling used sound equipment: not profitable but experience. I called my buddy back and started the process.
As the details came together the 2nd bike(investment bike) was newer, with fewer miles and worth more in the resale market than the Nightrain. It took 3 months for all the hurdles to play out, but with patience and my wife’s spurring faith it all came together. I knew I had to buy low and sell high for the flip to work. Both of those tasks are typically met with great opposition in business. Not only did the seller let me reduce my initial offer $500.( after he tried to back out), he made a special trip back to the states to close the deal. The buyer of the 2nd bike did not haggle, but was happy to pay top dollar. He caught a ride to from Tulsa to Dallas (5 1/2hrs) to meet me at 9:pm, gave me the cash and rode it home.
Looking back I can see God’s hand in every step of the process and I realize the business deal was the easy part. The process was getting my faith to a place where I could let go of the throttle and let God drive. The past 8 years I have dictated when and where I would get to see the harvest, but the truth is God has been ready the whole time. I have gathered a lot of experience and random bits of knowledge in my short life and I continually pray for wisdom on what to do with it. Just last week I heard a Baptist preacher on the radio say “Wisdom is being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.” To build on that, Solomon was regarded as the wisest and richest man in the Bible….his success was built on being at God’s place, at God’s time, doing God’s thing…
I hope my testimony of God being faithful to a desire of my heart will encourage you and I would like to challenge you to pause for a minute. Answer these questions…..1. Where are you in life/family/business? 2. Should you be closer to success? 3. Are you doing what you want or are you doing what God wants?
Proverbs 3:6 says 'In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path'
I know you are wondering, so I will give you the short version. In the end I bought a beautiful motorcycle worth more than $20K for less than $4K….. how cool is that?
Danny snook
