If there is no wind, row.
Latin Proverb

Some poor people believe God made them poor.

This is a deadly belief. Because religious beliefs are so deep, they become part of our core identity. And they’re very difficult to dislodge.

I’ve heard this cruel belief spoken in various ways: “Fate made me this way.” “If I were rich, perhaps I won’t be as close to God as I am right now?”

“My poverty is God’s will for my life.”

Whenever I hear these lines, I get angry.

This is not the God we worship!

But God gets blamed for everything.

One day, two women were talking about their diets…

Dieter #1: “Last night, I wanted to eat ice cream after work.”

Dieter #2: “You didn’t, right?”

Dieter #1: “Well, I told God that if He wanted me to eat ice cream, He should give me a sign. I asked that He provide an empty parking space in front of the ice cream parlor. You know how busy that place is…”

Dieter #2: “And what happened?”

Dieter #1: “There was an empty parking space! And I ate to my heart’s content.”

Dieter #2: “Wow.”

Dieter #1: “It was God’s will. Of course, I had to go around the block seven times to find that empty parking space….

And guess what? This same woman will blame God for her obesity.

And with the same insane logic, people will blame God for their poverty.

Later in the book, I’ll explain how some people crave for poverty the way the dieter above craved for ice cream. And these poor people will look for that empty parking spot as God’s sign that He wants them poor-even if they have to go around the block seven times. More on this later…

Before I end, let me talk about the lotto (a popular Philippine lottery).

My friend Rex Mendoza says that Filipinos who buy lotto tickets think of it as an investment. They buy each week, usually betting one specific combination of numbers, spending huge amounts of money over the long haul. All in the hope that, one day, they’ll reap their investment returns. Not realizing that their chance of winning the lotto is as rare as being hit by lightning twice in the same spot! (If only they placed their bets in the specific stocks I talk about in the TrulyRichClub, their odds of winning would have been a million times better.)

But here’s the clincher: Many of these people actually pray to God that they win. And when they don’t, they can safely blame God for keeping them poor.

Absolutely insane.

Stop blaming God.