Pennies

Well as you know my friend Scott is having a book published. I asked him if his "pennies article" was in the book and he said "No." I thought it was a great article so I asked his permission to preprint it here. He said "Yes." As you will discover, he is not a man of few words. Enjoy.

Many years ago while proceeding to work, I saw a penny lying on the sidewalk. Picking it up I realized I had just made the equivalent of $36 an hour. The logic being it took me one second to pick the penny up, and there are 3600 seconds in an hour, hence the “minimum wage”!

When I got inside I told my boss about my good fortune; he wasn't impressed. I don't suppose he had much of a sense of humor.

I have heard many people say that they would not pick up pennies since they don't have much, if any, value today. There's nothing left that you can buy by itself for a penny. Those specials where you “buy one at regular price, get the next one for a penny” don't count.

But for whatever reason I continued to pick them up, until I became an Owner Operator. That is, I bought my own truck and worked for myself, leased to a local trucking company.

Then the bad luck started to happen. It seemed every time I found a penny and picked it up, I would have a tire go bad on the truck. If I saw a penny and walked on by, nothing would happen. But if I picked it up, POW! a tire would go. I “proved” this theory. At a truck stop in New Mexico I saw a penny and walked on past into the building. I saw it again on the way out, and continued on. I had no tire problems on that trip.

I figured since others would not pick up pennies, there was a strong probability that it would be there the next time I was in the area. Sure enough, it was still there, so I picked it up. Not a hundred miles down the road I had a tire blow! So from that point on I refused to pick up any pennies.

Now I digress for good reason. Hang in there.

Just a few years ago God finally got my attention. In the process of studying the Bible and learning about Jesus, I realized how silly my superstitions were, but never got around to addressing the penny issue.

Then recently I received an E-mail about a rich man finding a penny and acting like he'd won the lottery. When asked why he was so happy about finding a penny, he replied, “Because it says right on there, ‘In God We Trust.’ What could be better than that?”

Since reading that I've been picking up the pennies I “find,” averaging one for every day I've worked. It isn't enough to just know the saying is there; I make it a point to read the caption: “In God We Trust.”

Later when I meet up with somebody I show him or her the penny. The usual response is “So what?” That opens the door for me to tell them about the motto, and to profess my belief in God and Jesus.

It's ironic that the smallest denomination of our currency could be a tangible reminder of God's grace. I may not have a lot of money, but by God's grace I'm rich.