TIME FOR EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

Recently I have been reading some financial books that talked about the power of compound interest. I learnt that initially the money grows very slowly. But the moment it reaches a critical point, the growth becomes exponential! When given enough time, the power of compounding can turn very small amounts of money into huge sums. 

That’s usually the case with compound interest. You really cannot see much increase in the first few years but after it crossed a certain timeline, the increase becomes exponential. I realised that was the case for the payment of our house loan too. I noticed for the first eight years of the loan, we paid off very little in terms of the principal sum. Much of our payments went to paying off the interest. 

Some people would make lump sum payments to offset the loan at some point. This is good because it will help in reducing the principal sum borrowed. And as the outstanding loan becomes lesser, the interest payments will be lesser too, so more of your monthly mortgage will go into the reduction of principal sum. I think in the spiritual world, it also functions the same way.

Like how it is usually much harder at the start but as it progresses, things get easier, especially when one is very near the end. Of course there would be increased resistance coupled with unbearable weariness that causes one to give up towards the end but if the truth was to be made known, one would be rejoicing. Like the payment of a loan towards the end, you are making more contribution to pay off the principal sum as the interest decreases. With every single month of payment, you see your loan balance drop significantly.

Imagine how that would encourage you to press on to clear off your loan as soon as possible in the natural. Unlike the start of the journey, that same stride you take actually causes you to advance much more towards the end. More than you can imagine. Then the lump sum payoff is like a second wind, which offloads your burden significantly, so that you can advance even more than before. 

I would liken the second wind as God sending help when we felt most weary and out of strength. This could come in the form of revelation to see things from His perspective or how far He has brought you or how close you are to the breakthrough. It may seem like you are making little progress towards the end than the beginning but that is just a smokescreen from the enemy. The truth is you are making so much progress than you ever know. Covering more grounds.

I feel that the ending is definitely not harder than the beginning because the end is in sight. After all we have been faithfully ploughing for the last ten years so it is time for the exponential growth to take place. Yes it is really time. Thank God for opening my eyes to see this revelation! It so encourages my heart! This is like the second wind! It just made me feel like sprinting towards the finishing line so that I could end it off earlier. Just like how towards the end of a loan, you want to quickly pay it off.

So that’s why it is so important to press through the sluggish times, the inertia, the times when we don’t see anything happening, no increase, no progress etc. There is progress just that it is slower in the beginning. But when it gains enough momentum things will naturally move much faster. After a certain time, you may find that it is moving so fast that you cannot keep up. That’s what I feel for the past decade I had journeyed through. The early years were quite slow moving, with no apparent progress.

It was tough and fallow ground but I had to just keep ploughing to break up the soil. But somewhere around last year I think, there was a turning point. Things started falling in place, much faster than I imagine. Even though I was still in the old season and old place, I could already discern the changes. These were signs of season change. There were a few key financial decisions we made last year which I think was laying the foundation for exponential growth in the future years.