I’m taking a post off from church debt to talk about this past weekend.  This past Saturday, my wife and I went up to Newspring Church in Anderson, SC for a one day financial counseling seminar.  It was taught by Joe Sangl and The Saving Freak both are passionate about helping you get out of debt so that you can do what you were meant to do.

The whole purpose of the seminar is to train other individuals to counsel those who want to get out of debt.  Who want to change their financial tree forever.  It was exciting and thrilling to participate and learn how to do this and I’m looking forward to being a part of helping people change their lives!  One idea which completely rocked my world was communicated by Joe.  The idea is that we are not in competition with the other financial advisor’s/counselor’s in the world.  

This rocked my world because earlier this year I had been trying to find my niche, my plan… and too be honest while I tried, in reality I couldn’t think of any major improvements to make on what those who are currently in the marketplace.  I could make a few tweaks here or there, however, in reality, plans from Dave Ramsey, Crown Financial and others are solid.  So, hearing that was relaxing… it takes the pressure off and let’s me focus on trying to help people… not trying to come up with my own plan.

Another thought occurred to me this weekend.  One that is still only partially formed but has potential to provide some direction in the area of what will drive my passion and move me forward in helping people.  I’m excited to see people get out of debt… the challenge for me is, I’ve been there, done that and now I’m moving on to the next challenge.  Of course, there are many other people who need help and will need someone who has been through it to walk them through it too.  So, this weekend I began to think about what might be something to hang my motivation on… And something hit me like a ton of bricks…

There are several things in life which are near and dear to my heart, things or conditions which exist in this world and should not… Kids starving to death.  People being kidnapped and sold into the sex slave trade worldwide.  And people without clean drinking water.  I remembered hearing several statistics which basically said that if every church going individual gave just 10% of their income global poverty and many other ills could be remedied and there would still be a large sum left over.

Whether or not that could become a driving force for me remains to be seen.  At best, it’s a thought in the incubation stage, at worst, a fleeting thought that will vanish into the night.  It boils down to if people were out of debt, how much could they give to the causes that light a fire in their heart?  How much could they leave for their family?  How much more fulfilling would their lives be if they weren’t worrying about making the next week’s bills.