❼ Part 3: How to Take Bigger Risks (and Win) Without Much Stress

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

We had spent so much time looking at the car, that the other people that were previously interested in it had given up and left. This made it a little bit harder to tell the car seller that I actually didn’t have any money.

I think, like most other normal people, he must have assumed that a person who says they want to buy a car has money (or some other means) to pay for said car.

I asked to be excused and pulled my Pastor friend to the side to explain the situation.

Me: So uhm. I actually don’t have any money to pay for this car

Pastor: what do you mean you don’t have any money?

Me: I just don’t. The best I can do is to write him a check that will not clear for another two weeks

Pastor: oh. That’s never going to work. We don’t do things like that in America – especially not with cars. Nobody would sell a car like that

I felt my brows begin to furrow. My next words were respectful but I’m not sure I can say the same about the tone of my voice.

Me: I don’t care how things are done in America. I need this car. I’m walking by faith. I will give him a check and he will take it.

My Pastor friend didn’t respond.

We walked back over to the car seller and words that I did not plan started to come out of my mouth.  I told the car seller that I liked the car and would love to buy it.

I told him that I thought the price was fair and I would pay it.

Then I pulled out my checkbook and wrote an amount that was half what he was asking for. 

I also told him that, even though I was writing him a check, there was actually no money in my bank account.

He would have to wait two weeks to cash the check, I explained. Then I told him that once he cashed that check, I would bring another check with the balance in exchange for the car keys.

You know what the car seller said in response? “Sure that sounds good”.

I smiled and said thank you.

How to Take Bigger Risks (and Win)…

The first lesson I learned from this experience is simple.

Lesson #1: You can’t always trust the “expert” opinions of authority figures

The Pastor didn’t mean to discourage me when he said the plan would fail.

In fact, he’s a really great guy and we’re still friends today.

Maybe he doesn’t even know it but, that day, he taught me that sometimes you just have to trust your gut…or God..or whatever you want to call it.

Sometimes, you just have to trust that the crazy thing you’re doing will work–even when all reasons to the contrary exist. tweet this

How to Take Bigger Risks (and Win)…Without Much Stress

It’s one thing to take a risk despite what authority figures say.

It’s quite another to be able to do so with complete confidence and peace of mind. This is a skill that a lot of people wish they had, but they don’t.

While I can’t scientifically prove anything to you, you will agree that this skill is freely available to everybody when you hear what happened next.

Just a few weeks after picking up the car, the check engine light came on.

For normal people, the check engine light means it’s time to take the car to the mechanic to have it inspected. But for people, like me, with car buying phobia, it means something a little bit different. We don’t like anything to go wrong with our cars.

We want our cars to hum like angels and run like silk.

So I would usually interpret the check engine light as the time to panic. Surely, that little red light couldn’t be the foreshadowing of anything good. I dreaded that light.

You would assume that after the fiasco with my previous car, I would dread the check engine light even more now.

Not so.

This time, when the light came on, I had a thought that may not seem very profound at first.

I thought to myself — “God helped me to get this car”.

Eventually, the implication of that statement dawned on me.

If God helped me to get this car, then this car is the car that I am supposed to be driving. If this is the car that I am supposed to be driving, then this check engine light is on right now because I am supposed to be dealing with this light.

Don’t let anybody lie to you.

When we take risks, a natural part of the process is to go through challenges and rough patches. HOWEVER, I never want to go through a rough patch that wasn’t mine to go through in the first place.

I have learned that if I allow God to be involved in my risk taking adventures, then I can trust God to get me through any rough patches that come with it.

Don’t miss the lesson here.

Lesson #2: If you are in a situation because God put you there, then you don’t ever have to become anxious or stressed out when things go wrong

You can just trust that you are going through whatever rough patch it is because you’re supposed to be going through it.

My belief is that if God gets me into a tough situation, I can trust Him to get me out of it. No stress required.