Friday, December 10

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“Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent…So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:29, 31 (CSB)

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These last two weeks I’ve spent time sharing lessons that I learned from mentors. Next week, I will be writing a series of Christmas themed devotions to get your heart and mind focused on the season.

But I have one more lesson from a mentor that I’ve saving for last, a lesson my good friend Ron Unger taught me.

Quite a few years ago I got to know a couple at our church, Ron and Kami Unger. They had come from a different church in town and were such an awesome couple the pastor from their former church called me to tell me that I needed to immediately recruit them. He said he knew we were a big church, and he didn’t want this couple to get lost in the crowd.

Shortly after I met with them and over the next few years, we became friends.

I have a wonderful memory of having Ron and Kami over to our home and teaching them the card game Killer Bunnies. After they left Ron sent me a picture. It was of a very road-killed bunny they saw on their way home from our place. Ron thought it was funny.

Ron was like a classy redneck. If you met him up town or at church, he would be wearing a sports jacket and jeans, but if you went to their farm, you’d find him blowing up crap and launching aerosol cans out of a pipe stuck in a bonfire.

Ron and his siblings collectively owned a lot of different businesses. They had a junction drop-off for cattle, a butcher shop, a feed mill, they owned farmland, Ron was a third partner in a rural internet provider, and they had hogs. I’m not kidding when I say his portfolio was diverse!

In 2008, when the economy decided to take a little break from working for us, the hog industry in Manitoba was particularly hard hit. (It was like old Uncle Economy, that rich relative, decided he needed to buy an island in the Caribbean and left his snot-nosed nephew in charge. What was he thinking?)

At the time Tara and I were co-leading a small group of young married couples with Ron and Kami, so we saw each other often.

Slowly, as the financial crisis wore on, Ron lost some of the cheery mischief that he was known for.

For the most part, knowing very little about business or the economy, I would just check in with him, and pray for him.

One day, I asked Ron how he was doing, and he told me a phrase I have never forgotten. (Get ready… this was the mentor lesson.)

“Thom,” Ron said with a weak smile, “we do not get emotional about money.”

He then added, “Our wives do. But we do not.”

Ron never, ever lost sight of the number one goal in life; Jesus.

I loved this about Ron. He would drop a “That’s bullsh!t” so easily (and accurately), and then go on to tell Jesus why in prayer. Real. Authentic. Humble. Christian. Those are all words that I would use to describe Ron.

“Money,” Ron would say, “is a tool to do good in the world. That’s it.”

I think Ron might have had a one-liner for every topic known to man, but it was his quip about money that has stuck with me and become part of my belief structure surrounding finances.

Ron had about 10 years on me, so he was far, far, far too young when he died suddenly of a heart attack a couple of years ago.

I miss him tremendously.

There is something about the death of a close friend that crystalizes the most important things they told you.

I think of Ron’s philosophy of money often.

Reflection

What is a quip that has become a value, rule of life, or guiding principle for you? Today, you have 1 task (at least from me!) – find someone who might benefit from that bit of truth and share it with them. Heck, if you’re feeling particularly generous, share it with the world on social media.

A Short Prayer

“Father, thank You for [insert name of mentor here]. Thank You that our paths crossed and that they enriched my life. Thank You for the many mentors You have given me. Help me to steward the lessons they taught me to others who need the same truth. Amen.”