where is God in your situation?

There's a guy a I used to know, he was a liar and a cheat, and took any and every opportunity to take advantage of any and everybody around him. I'll call him Jacob.

Jacob did not believe in tithing, he said pastors stole the money, and he wasn't going to make any man rich from the sweat of his own brows. In fact, he wanted to start his own parish, because he believed that the 'church business' was a lucrative one. I used to laugh it off as one of those things. Jacob had been out of work for a while, and when he finally got a job on a contract basis, he refused to declare, much less pay income tax. I thought maybe he did not know what to do, and even gave him some tips on registering one's self as self employed, etc. Jacob happily ignored my advice. What did I expect anyway? A man who steals from God, has no fear of God. How on earth could he fear, or have respect for any human? If he can't pay tithe, what will make him pay his taxes???

Jacob got more and more contract work to do, and just raked the cash in. At some point, he had to get a co-worker. The co-worker transported them from place to place, and Jacob did all the paperwork. Adding a few more miles on the mileage receipt, a few more pounds to the phone bills, and even requesting for my(!) lunch receipts were another way of boosting his pay that he thought nothing of. He even began keeping some of the equipments he was meant to be using for work, and at some point started selling them to willing buyers with no questions asked... At some point, his co-worker got a better offer and moved on, and Jacob had to find a replacement. What better to do than to call on an old friend?

One day, Jacob told me he had a confession to make... He had told his friend that they were being paid half of the actual income, so in actual fact he was paying himself three quarters, and the friend was getting a meagre one quarter. Now, this friend of his has a few mouths to feed, and even ignoring that fact, it just did not sound right to me, and I voiced my opinion -as usual- only to be told that the friend had cheated him out of some money when they were younger and it was now payback time...oh, well. I told him it wasn't right, and just left it at that. The thing is, I don't think I ever paid much attention to the fact that Jacob was a common thief, a liar and a cheat until the day he stole from ME.

I had run out of cash, and asked my Mum for a tenner. I placed it on my sister's bed as I dressed up. While I was getting ready, the doorbell rang and I went to get it. It was Jacob. I let him in and went to the living room. He took off his shoes, and went to say hi to my Mum, and then went straight to my room - THE meeting point - and I followed shortly after. I glanced at the bed and the tenner wasn't there, so I assumed it had dropped off the bed. I went to get my shoes, bag, overcoat and came back to 'pick up' the tenner. It was nowhere to be found. I checked under the bed, under my bed, on the bedside drawers, every nook and cranny of the room I could think of-nothing! I thought maybe I had absentmindedly taken it with me at some point, so I wandered to the living room, ventured to the kitchen and snooped around the toilet and bathroom -no chance. Jacob had gone into the living room to watch TV while I frantically but silently searched for my tenner. Eventually, I shouted out to my Mum to ask if she had seen what I did with it, and crossed over from the kitchen to my bedroom.

Jacob crept in behind me, and my Mum replied that I had gone straight into my room and I should go and check in there. Jacob pulled a ten pound note out of his pocket and handed it to me saying is this the one you are looking for? I found it on your sister's bed. I asked what he would have done, had I not shouted and drawn attention, and he said he was actually waiting for someone to 'look for it' so he could give it back. I reminded him that this was MY home, and nothing in there belonged to him. For it to be lying around, it belonged to someone in this house, and it would be nice for them to find it where they left it. He said he wouldn't have kept it, he would have given it back, was just waiting for the owner to report it missing...

Now, someone who can conveniently steal a tenner from me right under my nose, within my own home. How much more can he do? I asked myself this question so many times after that. I realized that, not pro-actively preventing him from stealing from other people, I was encouraging/tolerating his actions and therefore was as bad as he was. The funniest thing is, his favourite saying is 'people with whom you go stealing, will one day steal from you' Isn't THAT ironic? I always used to ask Jacob 'where is God in your situation' whenever I felt he was doing something wrong. I guess he hardly did anything right, I asked him time without number and after a while it just didn't matter anymore. Now where is God in MY situation? Do you have a Jacob in your life? What are you doing about him/her? Like Jacob in the Bible, mine is a great deceiver. Unlike Jacob in the Bible, he is yet to pray his breakthrough. All I can do, and all I DO do, is stand in the gap for my friend... till the day he fights for and receives his blessing, and is delivered from himself.