Making lots of money was obviously not what it was about… but it took all those years to find that out.  Fortunately, I found out a few other things in that process. Chief among those things was that Phil Wolff wasn’t in charge of anything… nothing.

I had made the commitment years before  (after the failure of Jersey Crane) that I would never again take any money for myself  before paying every employee and every bill in the house.  I got to walk that out in a very different way than I ever thought.  For 8.5 years, I never took a paycheck from T. Calico’s Restaurant…. in that process, I discovered experientially, who was in charge… the One who is in charge of absolutely everything.

Think about this… every week for 8.5 years (that is over 400 weeks) I never had enough money to cover either payroll or purveyors until the very end of the week… always just enough… and never anything left over for Phil Wolff.

I learned how to trust the Lord.  I learned how to depend on the Lord.  I learned it has nothing to do with money… it has nothing to do with winning or losing… success or failure… small or large… it’s just about Him.

Fortunately I have continued to learn more and more over the years, starting with following the Lord and trusting only in Him…then dealing daily with what He allows on our plates… just being who I am, where I am… and leaving  all the rest up to Him.

Of course, there were other things going on at T.Calico’s over those years…

🙂