When the Rug is Jerked…
Last year I had some very unique opportunities arise. I’ve always been a networker and as a result have met a lot of individuals in all lines of work. While speaking with a new contact, I was asked if I knew anyone who traded or dealt in commodities. I did and was asked to connect my contact with this distributor. It seemed insignificant but within a few weeks I had people that I did not know calling me and asking questions about selling everything from jet fuel to uncut precious stones… I knew nothing about this business but wasn’t going to let grass grow under my feet so I started making phone calls and connecting some people with others within my network.
In short time a friend of mine called me with a proposition on raising capital for a multi-film deal with a very significant Hollywood producer. If I could close the deal, my commission alone would be VERY SUBSTANTIAL! (To the tune of wiping out all of my debt (house included) and having enough to run on for several years afterward.) I figured “why not”, if the opportunity arises and you don’t try, “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take”…So I started making phone calls.
To everyone’s surprise “producer included” in a few days I had connected with an investor who was interested in this proposal. He flew to LA, and met with the producer. Everyone was seemingly on the same page and ready to pull the trigger and I was weeks away from being “debt free”…
The idea of being “debt free” to me was nearly unbelievable… In recent years so many difficult situations had arisen taking me down a twisty-tourney road of frustration and “unfair” (to say the least) circumstances…and this felt like it could be my “season of reaping for all that I had sown”… I was so excited!
The day of the deal signing came…all the players were at the table…everything that we had all worked toward for several months was just about to pay off HUGE, and one of the “players” underhandedly changed some of the terms of the deal. Upon receiving this information, my investors immediately packed up their toys and went home…No questions…No deal…
I have been told that often times “Rejection is Protection” and I don’t know how that may have applied in this circumstance. Obviously, there were some “shady” things being done in an attempt to deceive my investors but where the rubber met the road, I had the rug jerked out from under me in a bad way!
How does one navigate those kinds of MAJOR disappointment seasons? Are there feelings of anger? Are there feelings of frustration? Are there “why God” moments? Yeah…DEFINITELY! I can’t tell you how bad or for how many reasons I needed that deal to go through… I had already been planning how I was going to bless others…How I was going to finally pursue a buried dream of my own…How it was going to free up “strings” that were more like ROPES holding back progress in my family…
I had prayed EXTENSIVELY! I literally spent weeks fasting about this deal! I even sowed the largest monetary seed I had ever given during this season… I just knew that this was my breakthrough moment! …and when it didn’t go like I thought it was going to…Like I BELIEVED it was going to… It took some wind out of my sails to say the least!
Outside of just a small group of people, I have never shared any of this with anyone! It was a disappointment of mine that ran painfully deep… Even though it had nothing to do with me, I felt like somehow, I let my entire family down…and failed…again…
I could have thrown a fit. I could have gotten mad at God. I could have spent YEARS questioning “why?”. But, honestly, this wasn’t my first rodeo with disappointment and it wouldn’t be my last. I realized that there were 100 ways that I could handle this let down. As I considered all of my options, I went back to the one I KNOW! I went to a friend of mine who promised me that, although the world was full of tribulation, HE had overcome the world! I went to the one who promises that my faithfulness to Him will not go unnoticed or unrewarded. I went to the one who told me to “cast my cares upon Him”. I went to the one who promises to be my shelter in the times of storms. I went to the one who promised that He will never leave me or forsake me. I went to the one who told me that I am more than a conqueror. I went to the one who writes the pages of my destiny… I went to my God who has brought me through every other disappointment and will once again take my hand and lead me through…And I told Him, “Yet, will I trust YOU”… The one who holds my world in the palm of His hands… Yet, will I trust YOU! And it wasn’t the last time I had to tell Him that… His Word says that God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him and although my circumstances appeared to be “less than a reward”… I still KNOW that He is FAITHFUL! …His joy still comes in the morning! And it is His joy that is My strength!
I’m so confident that many reading this have experienced their own form of having the “Rug Jerked” from under them. You may even have had it happen SEVERAL times, as if you are traveling from “rug to rug”… I’ve been there… Hear me when I say, the circumstances do not change the truth of God’s word!
If we could time travel back in time from the future, I’m betting that we would tell ourselves something like, “Just wait til you see what God has planned…You’re gonna LOVE IT!”
I have often heard this phrase in the back of my mind when everything seemed to be crashing around me… “This too shall pass”… That’s the thing about storms…As violent and as overwhelming as they are while we are in the middle of them…Eventually, they pass…and if we keep on pressing on, we will see the sunshine again…
I challenge you with this final thought: Remain postured for blessing…
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
If you can dig it, Say Word!!!