For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes; neither is the way of man in his own hands.
THOMAS A KEMPIS, The Imitation of Christ
I have written a few times about thrive and survive mode. My plans for thrive mode were my proposal. The accident that damaged my brain was God's disposal. The lesson I learned in all of that is that your life is entirely in God's hands. This should be good news to everyone except those busy making other plans. I confess to being one of those people making other plans.
Thrive mode is the vanity of living large and fast in the here and now. I have scanned my memory banks to try and recall someone who actually lived in thrive mode, and I could think of no one. What I could think of were many people with hefty debts. And that, Gentle Reader, is the dirty secret of thrive mode. It is a fiction built on borrowed money.
When you decide to live debt free, you enter into permanent survive mode. I have always lived in survive mode, but I planned to live in thrive mode one day without recourse to loans and credit. That was utter folly. I am not saying that it can't be done, but it is so hard to accomplish that it forces you into a state of humility and rethinking things in more practical terms. You find you don't need that three story McMansion. You don't need that gas guzzling 4WD redneck limousine. Earned money sobers the mind while easy credit intoxicates the brain.
I believe God provides for your needs but not your greed. God has always provided for my needs as I am still alive as I write this. He has never allowed me to win the jackpot in the lottery. That is for the good because winning the lottery would be a disaster for me in terms of my lifestyle. I like living in survive mode, and I don't want that to change.
The Boomers were the generation that lived in thrive mode. I know one Boomer who took on a 30 year mortgage in his 80s. That is optimism for you. Ultimately, that entire generation borrowed their way into a state of permanent debt. Trump proposes the 50 year mortgage. Only Boomers would think that was a good idea.
It is no surprise that the Boomers are mostly a godless generation. That is how thrive mode warps the mind. It makes God needless to your life. But we know better.
My life is in God's hands. It is the same for you, Gentle Reader. Survive mode forces us to acknowledge and accept that reality and depend on God's mercy and providence. Our clever schemes are not the secret. As someone who loves strategies for living, I have to admit that they are nothing without God. I can claim credit for no victories in my life. The glory belongs to God.
I believe in the cooperative model as expounded by St. Augustine. You should pray as if everything depends on God. You should work as if everything depends on you. The evangelical Protestant loves the idea of letting God do all the work, but this is presumption. God expects us to put effort into things. Likewise, the atheist believes in total self-reliance and being the "captain of his soul." This is arrogance. God will show the bankruptcy of that in His time.
Survive mode comes down to praying and working according to the Rule of St. Benedict. You do both. You plant your seeds and pray for rain. Farmers and gardeners know the cooperative model well.
As a former atheist, I tend towards self-reliance. God has ended that for me with allowing me to be a TBI survivor. I am at God's mercy. God is still there. I am surviving by His grace. I believe in God reliance now. My wife and I have seen God do what we could never do, and we are grateful.
You should start each day with prayer and asking for God's help. Then, you need to forget that prayer and get to work on whatever you can do. If you pray and don't work, God will not bless that. If you work and don't pray, God will not bless that either. You pray and work. Do both. Faith without works is dead.
This whole ordeal with TBI has been very humbling for me, but I am grateful for that. It came at a time when I was going to take steps towards getting to thrive mode. I was such a fool then. I pray that I never become that foolish again.
The bottom line is that survive mode is the cooperative model of Saint Augustine. You should be wise and work but also be humble acknowledging that it all comes from God. I think of David slaying Goliath with that sling. Was it a miracle of God? Or, was it David's skills with the sling? The answer is both. God used a simple shepherd to bring down a proud and arrogant warrior. Humility is a gift from God, and it is humility that wins the battle.
