There’s a line from a 1978 skit on Saturday Night Live where Steve Martin says, “You can be a millionaire… and never pay taxes! You say… “Steve… how can I be a millionaire… and never pay taxes?” First… get a million dollars.”
It’s a line I often repeat back and forth jokingly with my dad whenever we are trying to come up with some magnificent plan to earn money, fix a problem or overcome some obstacle. As if our problems can be overcome by skipping to the solution first. Brilliant in its simplicity.
The skit continues, “Now… you say, “Steve… what do I say to the tax man when he comes to my door and says, ‘You… have never paid taxes’?” Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language: “I forgot!”
If I got paid a dime every time I said those words, I really would be a millionaire and could use Steve’s excellent advice on how to avoid paying taxes on said millions. Seems to be a self-correcting problem.
But life does not let us forget, nor does it come with a manual full of answers (but maybe some bad advice from comedians).
Most of us struggle through the better part of life with a few moments of contentment sprinkled in here and there. We rarely get to enjoy the fruits of our labors and most of that does seem to go towards paying taxes, ironically enough. When we do allow ourselves the freedom to sit back and take in a little bit of that hard-earned success, we often forget that success wasn’t the point, it was the journey contained in it. Because life isn’t just about what happens at the end, it’s everything in between too.
We as Christians are taught to focus on what happens in the next life, but to get there we can’t just wish it into existence, just like the million dollars we hope to avoid paying taxes on. It’s the in-between that makes that afterlife exist. Every choice, every mistake, every success paves the path to our next destination.
My priest often tells us that, “God writes straight with crooked lines”. Meaning, we don’t always take the straight path forward to get to our destination. Matter of fact, I’d say we rarely do.
My personal journey seems to have more twists and turns than straight paths, but without those wrong turns and mistakes, I wouldn’t have been able to show my husband and children the same graces God had shown me.
We learn by doing and every error was building the path forward. I often found God used my children to show me what needed changed in myself. If I find them to be particularly envious of another child’s belongings, I could often see that behavior in myself if I looked closer.
And just like God chose to gently guide me to a better way of thinking, I had the opportunity to teach my children the same. Even though they are grown adults now, He still knows how to communicate with me through them. People change but humans do not.
I’m still a work in progress and so are they. Sometimes we work through our problems together and sometimes we do so separately, but we keep trying to help each other build our own personal paths forward because we weren’t meant to do it alone.
And when we find ourselves overcome with wrong decisions, it’s comforting to know we can always start over and try again. And when we hope for a better outcome, just remember, first… get a million dollars. The rest will work out.
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