The Bottomless Bank Account
During a rough time in my life around 2008-2009, God visibly showed up and managed my bank account for me. At the time, I was making $16/hour and had a $1,000/month mortgage, a car payment, a student loan payment, plus all the other regular household expenses.
Let’s do the math:
Income
About $2,090 (after taxes, insurance, 401(k) contribution, any other deductions)
Outgo:
$1,000 – mortgage, taxes, insurance
$200 – car payment
$60 – car insurance
$250 – gas (car)
$200 – student loan payment
$120 – water/sewer/garbage
$50 – electric
$50 – gas
$250 – groceries
$50 – cable/internet
$50 – cell phone
We’re already to the monthly income with these conservative estimates, even without considering the occasional (read: rare) coffee, lunch, or movie out, oil changes, HVAC repair or maintenance costs, etc. But during this period (a year or two) my bills were paid on time and in full every month. I was not once overdrawn. The checking account balance just never seemed to drop as fast as the bills indicated it should. And somehow, within a few years of this, I paid off both the car and the student loan and even ended up with a small amount of savings.
And just a few months ago, in 2023, I got a very nice raise at work. I imagined all the things I could do with that extra money, all the vacations I could take! And then bam – I got hit with a $13,000 plumbing bill. I felt like God had dangled this really good thing in my face and then snatched it away.
But the plumbing issues were going to happen anyway because I live in an old house, and what God had actually done was provide for the payment of those bills in advance. I still had to finance part of it, but with His continued grace, the financed portion will be paid off in 12 months. What could’ve been a very stressful financial situation instead was just a relatively minor inconvenience.
– Melody Hitchner
