"Come on, Mom, can’t we go out for cheeseburgers
and fries?” my teen-age son Andrew implored.
“Sorry, fast food is too expensive.” I snapped.
As my 50th birthday loomed, I’d become a money-hoarding
crab. I’d loved my 40s. They were fun, energetic
and full of life. I’d accomplished a lot during
my forties. A month before I turned 40 I became a single
parent to my four children, but thanks to team effort
and lots of prayer, we survived the next decade beautifully.
I not only got the three oldest through their teen-age
years without too many new gray hairs, they were now college
graduates living on their own and supporting themselves
with interesting careers. I just had the youngest, Andrew,
still at home … a terrific high school sophomore
involved in sports and band.
My 40s had been happy years, but I wasn’t sure about
turning 50. The big day was only months away and what
I didn’t know was that my financial future was beginning
a downward spiral and most of it had to do with getting
older.
The first thing that happened that summer was a huge portion
of my back tooth broke into little pieces. When a new
crown was put in, I had to fork out $487 to my dentist.
No dental insurance, of course.
The next day I received a bill for X-rays of my arthritic
toe … $144. The medical insurance I could afford
didn’t cover X-rays.
That same week I noticed I was having trouble reading
the fine print and sometimes even the medium print. Out
of desperation I purchased a huge light for the kitchen
that contained four four-foot-long fluorescent bulbs.
It made cooking, bill paying, reading and letter writing
at the kitchen counter much easier for my “approaching
50” eyes. But that new light set me back $107.
Next, I made a trip to the optometrist’s office.
He said both my distance and close-up vision were worse.
My whole physical well-being flashed before my eyes. It
said, You’re almost 50, over the hill.
The bill for the bifocals and reading glasses was $241.
That same week, I gave in to one too many backaches caused
by the ancient desk chair in my home office. I figured
the lower back pain was just another pitfall of approaching
the big five-oh, which was starting to feel more like
the big five-oh-NO!
I prayed desperately and repeated my favorite verse from
Psalms 37:5 over and over. Commit thy way unto the Lord;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. I stepped
out in faith and wrote out a check for $105 for a superb
office chair with arms and lumbar support. Things seemed
to be looking up until I added up all the “extra”
bills. Grand total: $1,084.
I took a deep breath and, once again, committed it all
to the Lord. The next day I discovered lightning had struck
our television set. I could do without a television, but
Andrew often brought his friends to our family room to
watch movies. So that week I wrote out another check for
a good second-hand television … $250.
I wasn’t just going “over the hill”
age-wise, I was careening down, out of control, financially
as well as physically.
And so I prayed. “Lord, I need help! Thank you in
advance for providing for my son and me.” I ended
the prayer with the verse from Psalms.
A few days later while I was still wallowing in self-pity
over my pending birthday, I received a letter from a publisher.
As I opened the letter a check tumbled out. The year before
I’d written a few short daily devotionals for their
annual book, but I’d already been paid for my work
the previous spring.
The letter explained that in honor of their 20th year
of publication, they’d turned the distribution of
the book over to a larger publisher who expected sales
to skyrocket. The original publisher was sharing the advance
on the royalties with all the writers of the book.
My share was $1,338.
All I could do was nod skyward with a banana-sized grin.
Then I grabbed my calculator. But even before I added
the cost of the television to my list of five “getting
older” expenses, I knew the check I was holding
would cover it all.
The bills totaled $1,334, enough money for all those expenses
plus two big juicy cheeseburgers and fries. That night
as Andrew and I chowed down at his favorite fast food
place, I said what I’d been thinking all day. “Andrew,
turning 50 isn’t so bad. I think my 50s are going
to be my best decade yet, now that I’ve learned
to trust in the Lord.”
(Lorenz is an internationally-known author of four
books and hundreds of magazine articles and stories. To
contact her about speaking opportunities e-mail <patricialorenz@juno.com>.) |
