The Secret

Have you heard about the best-selling book and DVD series called The Secret? It has sold over 2 million copies by explaining that the secret to life is the law of attraction. You become what you think about.

I heard Oprah Winfrey say that this was true, so I thought I would give it a try. Good things happen to people who think only good thoughts. Bad things happen to people who think bad thoughts. If you have a disease, trial, disappointing relationship, etc... it has come as a direct result of your thinking.

Hmmm! Sounds interesting. I tried it on a couple of life events. I am tired of getting up every 3 hours to change my baby girl's diaper and give her to my wife to feed. So I tried to think positive about her sleeping through the night. It didn't happen. I also tried this week to think that the stock market would go up every day and create great wealth for my clients and self. But it lost value. Is the universe against me?

I am all for positive thinking. I enjoy being around positive people. I don't like to hear constant complainers. But there is a problem with the Secret. It doesn't work. I mean it might "work" for some people. But is something true, if it doesn't work for all people all of the time? You can think nice thoughts all day long. But you will die. You can think every day will be sunny. But one day it is going to rain. And it might rain hard.

It is has been raining hard for my family lately. My wife got diagnosed with a neurological disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth about 3 years ago. Her muscles are wasting away because her nerves are not working properly. And there is no current cure. The Secret can't help her.

On top of that, she had a spinal cord tumor 2 years ago that we feared was cancerous and deadly. Praise God it wasn't but she had to have surgery to remove it and this tumor may reappear over and over again with more surgeries to come.

Despite these health trials, God continues to sustain and bless us. We have 2 healthy children. We sold a house in Dallas and we are building a home that was supposed to be completed in March of this year. We don't deserve it. But we are grateful.

Because our house wasn't ready, we had to move our selves and kids to live with my wife's parents for a few weeks. Not being in your own bed is a little inconvenient, but no big deal. But building a house is stressful- lots of things go wrong. Not the kind of stress that comes from not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Or the stress that comes from being in continual pain. But stressful nonetheless. I guess if I lived in the world of The Secret, the new house would have been completed on time.

Life was difficult enough with the new home; a 7-week old baby; a 3-year old; my wife's ongoing health concerns, etc... But then she fractured her leg last week. She did this in Joe Theismann like fashion. She was screaming as I rushed to her. I saw her ankle hanging to the side. In a panic, I reset her ankle which caused her extreme pain.

I don't know why I did this. I have to credit God's Spirit. I know it wasn't The Secret. But it ended up being the right thing. The surgeon told me that it might have saved her leg. If the ankle hadn't been reset, she could have had a broken blood vessel or major nerve damage. I am sitting with her in the hospital right now as she recovers from surgery. She will be wheelchair bound for 3 months. I don't look forward to it- I have to be honest. It is a whipping.

I guess you could say that we are living the anti-Secret right now. But God is enough. He sustains us through every trial. He is our joy. We don't need good health to be thankful. We don't need stuff- although God has given us an abundance. This is the message that must be communicated to the world. God is not a slot machine. Jesus is not the ticket to prosperity.

Jesus invites us to come to Him and die, "If anyone wants to follow me, let him take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."- Luke 9:23-24. Sound attractive? Not to the Secret followers.

But Heaven can wait. I believe in the Secret in this sense. God will have abundance in store for those who yield to Him and follow Him. He will make good on His promises when He eliminates sin, disease, war, evil, pollution, etc... He will give His children a perfectly renovated earth in a resurrected body. He gives us a taste of this goodness during this life. But to really experience this, we must die. This life is not heaven. There are problems. But one day all wrongs will be made right.

The Apostle Paul told us, "To live as Christ and to die is gain."- Philippians 1:21. There is no secret to that. The gospel is believing God's promises of eternal bliss. But is also a willingness to travel a hard road to get there. A faith that costs nothing is worth nothing. Jesus told his disciples, "I told you these things that you may have peace. In this world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."- John 16:33.

Life is full of trials. Thinking them away won't do anything to help us avoid them. But God gives us grace to handle them one day at a time.

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge

Grace Giving- Traveling Light

One of my financial planner friends- Michael- encouraged me to balance my attack on tithing with a picture of what grace giving should look like under the new covenant of Christ.

I agreed that this was a good idea and this post is my attempt to do so. Let me start off by saying that one of the dangers of taking a stand on something is that people will view you as a hypocrite when your life doesn't match your beliefs.

For example, Al Gore speaks about the need for environmental reform. But he spent over $30k on electricity and natural gas in 2006 in his 10,000 square foot home. This makes him an easy target for critics that he is unwilling to make necessary sacrifices to be environmentally friendly.

In that sense, I admit that I am a hypocrite. The ideals that I espouse are goals that I strive for but fall short of. I am painfully aware that I could consume less than I do. I eat too much. Live in a house that is more than I need. I have more stuff than I need. I buy things and then days later ask, "Why did I do that?" I am not as conscious about waste as I should be. I give less than I could if I was willing to make more sacrifices, etc...


I am aware of my faults and try to make improvements as I journey through this life. My heroes are those who are content with less and view money and possessions as something to be funneled to others in need. I love what the English pastor John Stott said, "We should travel light and simply. Our enemy is not possessions, but excess."


In a nutshell, this is what I believe about grace giving under the new covenant. Possessions and things are gifts from God. Everything that God has created is good. We are to enjoy natural beauty and the improvements on creation that have come through the cultivation/innovation of mankind who are instructed to be stewards of God's resources- Genesis 1:28. We are to enjoy these things with gratitude.

God has showered the US with great financial wealth and abundance. Have we done anything to deserve this? No. It is the outflow of God's mercy. Has this abundance come directly as a result of tithing to a local church? I believe the answer is no. God's common grace showers plenty of evil men and women with abundance also. This is why the prosperity gospel is false.

Tom Verace a pastor in Arlington said this in a recent sermon, "Sometimes we are selling popsicles in the midst of a heat wave." Our prosperity can be attributed to good economic times not a direct result of God owing us anything for our faithfulness.

So the question is: what should we do with the resources that God brings our way? I believe there are some key questions we need to ask ourselves:

1. How much do I need to live?

We should evaluate what is needed for our families. This should be a prayerful process. What is wrong for one family might be right for another. But the challenge should be towards getting rid of excess in every area of life. For me this has had some practical implications: dropping 40 lbs of excess body weight; building a house with a small yard; purging any possession that has not been put to use in the last 12 months.

A recent song by Switchfoot titled American Dream has these lyrics,

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
When the top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess

I want out of this machine
It doesn't feel like freedom
This ain't my American dream
I want to live for bigger things

2. How much do I need to give, save and/or pay down debt?

Most Americans don't save enough. But some save too much. Too much money in the bank at the end of life can be as worthless as too many possessions. There should be a finish line for every Christian. Howard Dayton writes, "you don't see runners crossing a finish line of a race and continuing to run." Once we determine our Number, we should consider radical generosity with everything above this Number.

In other words, I believe that financial freedom is a worthwhile goal. We owe it to our spouses and kids to be striving for financial strength. Financial freedom allows us to use time and money in ways that are glorifying to God. When we are saddled by debt or financial worries, there is a tendency to make decisions that are less than ideal.

Debt should be attacked aggressively. Wise King Solomon said, "...you know not what disaster may happen..."- Eclessiastes 11:2. Being completely debt-free is wise. But being debt-free on a 8000 square foot home is different than being debt-free on a 2000 square foot home. Are you really free if your lifestyle requires massive overhead each month just to break even?

I believe that giving is a discipline. I am always in favor for setting giving goals each month/year and stretching towards those goals. But as I have written before, I just don't see the scriptural argument towards saying that 10% of your income must be given to a local church.

Everything we own or will own belongs to God. I have never earned a dollar that is not the direct result of God's grace. He can take my breath away any moment He desires. He can strip me of materials and abundance in a second and I will have no basis for complaint about God's unfairness in doing so.

But if He chooses to bring resources my way, my responsibility is to view every dollar and decision as part of a sacred trust. I am His steward. Whether I spend, give, save or pay off debt; I am to do all things for the glory of God.

Naturally the steward's heart will want to give generously. My desire is that Christ would increase and I would decrease- John 3:30. What this means to me is that I should strive for moderation and strategic simplicity in the way I live. And if my income rises, I should give a greater percentage each year. I don't believe the percentage matters. God sees the heart and he sees through all the ways we try to justify our goodness and faithfulness.

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge