Take Courage

"Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you…” Haggai 2:4

One of my fears is dealing with the government because I hate it when I have to have a face to face encounter with extortion. Some time ago, inspectors from a city Fire Department came. One of them said for someone to sign our Fire Safety Certificate, we would have to pay them. 

“Why?” I asked and he talked to me about facilitation and other such gibberish. 

“How much?” I asked. 

“It's up to you," he answered. “A school paid P50,000.00." 

“What? That's not facilitation! That's grease money!”

Then he warned, “You'll be in violation of the government.”

I said it was better to be in violation of the government than with God!

When you are in business, you can find yourself in many such situations with the BIR, the City Hall, customs, etc. I like the example of the Proverbs 31 wife. She was in business too. I am far from this ideal woman who wakes up early, takes care of her family, dresses well, makes good investments, and is kind to the poor. 

"Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the days to come." (v. 25) In another version it says "smiles at her future." We can only laugh and smile if we are confident that the Creator of the Universe is on our side. 

Whenever we have problems, we pray and pray and pray again. We will have been in business for 58 years by this October and God never disappoints. I’ve already forgotten exactly how that problem was resolved but I think it was because my assistant was a kababayan (from the same province) as that government inspector. She was able to persuade him to help us instead. Praise the Lord!