It’s Sunday! KNOW the Blessings of NO!
Having the strength to give or receive a “No!” is often a Blessing.
A quick question: What is “A Blessing?” For a lot of secular people it’s a religious way of trying to say something good or positive. For we Believers in Christ, I like how my former Pastor Dale described a Blessing: “It’s anything that draws you closer to God.” (I’ll discuss Blessings more in another post.)
When we are wanting to add to our drilling or pump equipment, don’t we Know that we have to say, “NO!” many more times than we have to say “Yes”? Often we look at brand new equipment and simply WANT it. We calculate how we can cobble together a down payment. Then we go to our wives and ask them if we can hock her house for what we KNOW will make us money. Often our wives understand The Blessings of NO! better than we can. She explains and tries to download somewhere in the dim recesses of the truth in our minds that we are going to be stressed out for YEARS as we make the payments - IF the economy hangs together - and since none of us are into homelessness, we arrive at The Blessings of NO!
I had this happen to me. At the beginning of 2008 I was newly married and I found a 40,000 pound excavator that was a great deal. (For our Infiltration Gallery Wells.) I went into sales talk mode with my new Bride. The first business thing she did when she married me was get a new CPA - AND a man who loved God - AND a man who also led a small group studying the Crown Financial method of obeying God with finances. I grudgingly went to the classes and then became convicted of overreaching in wanting to buy the excavator. My Bride ganged up with the Lord and I finally KNEW when I got one big fat . . . NO!
A few months later, as the economy crashed, I fully Knew The Blessings of No! And I thanked God for His “No!”
The flip side of the coin is also what happens. Sometimes we are so cheap and fearful of commitment that we can’t step up to good and safe equipment when we actually have the work and income to sustain it. Sometimes we need to go to our partners or wives and lay out how we KNOW we NEED another rig and want to buy some piece of crap. (I specialize in that.) SOMEONE needs to step up to the plate with the Power and Blessings of saying NO! to something that will nickel and dime us to death. (Sorry, it’s not nickel and dime anymore. It’s thousands and tens-of-thousands these days. I KNOW.)
Again, I had this exact thing happen to me. Roughly ten years ago, I KNEW we needed more air and a second rig and I was still in mode of, “I’m gonna build a multi-rig company with a bunch of great employees.” I found a 1977 CP-650 rig about a 100 miles away and worked out a deal with the owner to purchase it. Then I took my Bride over to see it. She looked at it and while not really knowing anything about our industry yet, but from her instincts she said, “Why do you want to buy that bucket of bolts?!” If she had been like most other women, what would have come out her mouth would have been, “Dude, you’re high! What a piece of CRAP! We’re screwed if YOU buy this!”
I went ahead and bought it. I did get screwed in a lot of ways. I spent hundreds of man hours working on it and at least $50,000 in hard cash, beyond what I paid for it. All the while my lovely Bride glowered at me each time I had to spend money on it. We should have bought a better rig. We had the work, and we ultimately lost a great driller since he was unhappy working with such poor equipment. In the “Good to Great” Book, the principal of bad decisions leading to worse things is called the DOOM LOOP.
IF I had listened to my Bride and IF I had known what I know now, I would have never bought that rig. I didn’t experience or KNOW . . . The Blessings of NO!
It’s fascinating to me that whether trying to buy equipment, or when trying to find an amazing wife (or husband), or when serving God, the Power and Blessings of NO! is one of the principals of foundational success with each.
How many trucks, rigs, or hoists do we look at as we think “No”. How many women (or men) do we date as we think, “O God NO!” How many times do we say NO! to reading God’s Word each day while we pursue something else we think is more important with that time? How many times do we need so say NO! to otherwise wonderful activities - even family activities - on Sunday morning, instead of leading our families to church?
Each of these Blessings of NO! require us to have strength and determination in making the right choices.
Matthew 5:37 says, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ’No’, ’No’. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” Serious stuff.
Last year, my driller friend, Felix Eye, traveled roughly 1300 miles - each way! - with his family to purchase a drill rig and then drive it home, ONLY to find out that the seller had changed his mind. Felix would have LOVED the Blessing of NO! before he spent six days of his life and gobs of money on . . . no rig!
However, Felix got a major blessing on that trip. When he started the trip Felix had asked God to join them in the trip and in the fun and travel to get that rig. So during the weekend when the man selling the rig was ignoring Felix and wouldn’t meet with him, Felix had an odd peace come over him regarding the purchase seeming to crash. Felix told me, “I will never forget standing outside of the hotel parking lot and in fear that my drilling life could be over if I didn’t pull a rabbit from my hat quickly and I spoke to God and said, ‘God this is why I love you so much, will you please take over from here?’” And then the next day Felix found out that the man backed out of the deal and wouldn’t sell him the rig. Felix said, “In all honesty I smiled and picked up the phone and contacted Reichdrill. It was as if God had already placed the order as they were able to put me in a brand new rig in only a few months.” (Unheard of - new rigs commonly take a YEAR to get built and delivered.)
Scripture actually addresses what Felix and his family went through: James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.”
The greatest instruction manual ever has lessons for us - from the greatest teacher ever - regarding HOW to say “No.” We don’t have to be jerks when we say “No.”
EVEN when Jesus was turning over the tables in the temple and saying, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers,” I suspect that it was in sorrow - not anger - that He had to stop the evil and provide a physical NO! Jesus, when tempted by the devil - how did He push back and end up with saying NO!? Jesus again quoted Scripture, and said, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
When the rich young driller - oops - ruler, came to Jesus and said, (WWGV), “Hey, I’ve been good, SO good! In fact, I obey all of the OSHA safety rules, I obey ALL of my states drilling regulations, I go the speed limit, and go above and beyond and buy new front tires for my rig every three years . . .” Jesus looked at him with LOVE in His eyes and told him, “NO! You aren’t going to heaven because you love all of your equipment more than God.” I can’t prove this from scripture, but I agree with many Bible scholars that say that BECAUSE Jesus demonstrated LOVE towards him while telling him the worst news ever, the rich young driller/ruler finally put God first and believed and is in Heaven today.
Let us all resolve to learn better how to KNOW how to say NO! kindly but definitely. AND to KNOW that often a NO! Is a blessing!
Please join me in our Ground Water Industry prayer this week: “O Mighty Father, You often protect us and love us by placing “No’s” in our lives. We thank you for protecting us! Even as sad and miserable your ‘Ultimate No’ will be, Lord, when you separate those who believe in You and who don’t, once again, that “No” will be The Blessing of a pure and holy heaven for those of us who have trusted in You. Help everyone of us who believe in You to do everything we can to prevent our friends, family, and associates to keep from hearing your “Final No” - that they have chosen - by encouraging them to trust in You! Please give us safety this week. Please help our country with the evil that is taking place at every level. Please strengthen us for the times that are now here! In Your Name, Amen!”
Now go and turn to the right while you begin to Know that God’s No is something you should Know and obey. :)
