Broke to Blessed - Johnny McWilliams

Check out Johnny's latest book: https://zeroinfinancial.com/press/intersection/

Transcript from this video:
Have you ever been broke? I mean totally flat broke. Have you ever been in a situation where you had no idea how you were going to pay rent this month? I’ve been there. Am I alone here?

Have you ever been driving in your jalopy as it is sputtering down the road, hoping you can make it home? You pull into Circle K and go up to the cashier and say, I want to put … $1.87 on pump 2? I’ve been there. Anyone else?

Have you ever broken open the piggy bank, checked ever pants pocket, turn the couch inside out, hoping to put together enough to go buy a little food?

Broke.

I’m not talking about poor. I’m talking about broke. Genuine poverty is rare in America because we live in a very rich country. Poverty is a topic for another message. But today I’m talking about being broke.

Broke is self-inflicted. You and I have God-given resources to manage: money, time, property, talent; and when we have an improper perspective of these recourses, broke happens.

I remember that horrible year, 2004 B.C. (you see the 3 decades of my life before I married my wife Christine are B.C., before Christine). Up to that point in 2004 B.C. I had done things my way. I was a spendaholic and like many fellow spendaholics, I was a big giver. So, I had friends, because when you buy meals and gifts for everyone, you have friends.

But after a while and after your perspective has been skewed for so long, reality comes to visit.

I remember begging the dealership to come get this car and the payment that goes along with it. I have no money to pay the bill. It is strangling me.

The borrower is certainly servant to the lender.

I remember getting that letter saying the bank was coming to evict me and my then wife out of their house.

I remember giving up, crying, depressed, destroyed, desperate,… as I singed those Bankruptcy Chapter 7 papers.

Broke is lonely, because those friends were nowhere to be found.

How does one get here?