Weeks ago, I received a deposit on art frames I was supposed to do, and suddenly my mind went wild!
It was 2 million, but trust me, all if it was catering for production costs! Once it landed in my hands … Heck — before even it landed into my custody, I was over the moon.
My mind was already envisioning where to spend at. I was daydreaming hours before I got the cash.
The tide changed when I received bundles of 10000 shilling notes and 50s.
Suddenly, I felt like everyone in the road was my enemy. I pictured myself followed, kidnapped, and captured. Heck I even thought my boda guy would lead me astray and hijack me —
You’d have thought I was carrying gold!
God snapped me out of it however.
“Act like you have zero shillings!” He said.
What that meant was that I had to be UNconscious of the cash I had just received. I had moved with a small waist bag and this eased the process.
When that mindset shift happened, I felt safe. I had received the cash next to the biggest pork joint in town at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds and all the while before receiving it, I had convinced myself to branch there for a stick or five!
Howbeit, when I started acting like I had zero cash on me, I didn’t dare look in the direction of the aromated pork whose tang invaded the Kampala-Jinja highway.
I reached home safely, and I spent the money in the way it was originally meant to serve — on the production of framed messages.
Other times have I lived, where I blow up my entire spending in one day. That’s the day when I randomly see that hawker selling sweatpants and shorts that I have been craving…
As he crosses the road, I pick more than I can afford. Bargaining even becomes less, since my pockets feel heavy on either side.
The result? Paying for trousers which end up being rather too big or too small. And though that error I may suffer, fate has been kind enough to have one out of the three expensive merch, fit me perfectly. My brain subtly asks, ‘why did I spend on the other trousers as well!’ …
Other times, I buy shoes displayed on the streets at the night market, only to have a foot as big as Cinderella’s step sisters when I try them on in the light. Once I remove the insoles and loosen the shoelaces, the shoes try to have mercy on me.
I am sure many of you can relate to this reckless spending or temptations when you receive or land on big money. Our financial thermostats tick off, and we find that the fruit of the Holy Spirit — particularly Self Control — is most crucial in such times.
Self control however is a large topic that could not be dissected in a few lines, but God has to condense it into simple adages or equations such as the one He told me, so that we could save ourselves from dire consequences.
I believe it’s hard to keep humble when we receive such huge amounts of money, but I also believe that every man or woman on their journey to wealth experiences these. I was once gifted half a million 6 years ago, and boy, I nearly grew not just a pair of horns, but 8!
It’s true that as you grow, more needs come up … like buying food or paying water bills. But the eye develops short term needs according to what crosses its front! And that’s why we have to adopt phrases like ‘Act like you have zero’ into consciences to scream loud in us and prevent us from ending up spending money that could not even be ours!
I heard friends talk about a man called Mandela who heads the city oil petroleum stations in Uganda. Attached to them is the famous Cafe Javas franchise. Now those who’ve witnessed him say he’s down to earth. He doesn’t bear golden chains around his neck, nor wear out-of-the-ordinary apparel. But what I believe, is that such phrases have kept such men from thinking they have achieved enough; which would make them settle.
I believe that them acting like they have zero has motivated them to keep working, and to keep investing.
Withal, this sharing is not to encourage misery, or being stingy. It’s a red traffic light example of how we can inculcate self control as far as money is concerned. If this isn’t the case, you’d; try not moving with large sums of money without purpose, avoid disclosing earnings to friends or family (lest they hype you up to clear the bills), ensure not to access your savings freely, choose monthly shopping sprees so that you wait for that time as opposed to ‘any time’, spending less than you earn, tithe before you spend any of your earnings, pray and fast (as it’s a way of teaching your flesh subjection or obedience to you…), and finally understanding money as a spirit.
Part of understanding mammon is having the knowledge that each shilling or pound or dollar has wings. Naturally, we have a worm in our heads that just wants to spend, spend, spend! And the wings of each of your money spin fast like the golden snitch from the quidditch games, ready to fly.
A man who has had power over money, and understood control of it, to him shall money’s wings ask, ‘where do you wish us to fly to?’ For then, money would have become a good servant, and not a terrible master or swift scamperer!
But to him who has NOT understood power over it, it won’t ask. It’ll always fly whichever direction it wills without the consent of its owner.
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Proverbs 23:4-5 Weary not yourself to be rich; cease from your own human wisdom. Will you set your eyes upon wealth, when suddenly it is gone? For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
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