The Path of Least Resistance

Isaiah 55:8 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Sometimes life doesn’t make sense. Over the last few months, I’ve been pondering why we are forced to spend so much of our time at work, often doing something we don’t enjoy, so that later in life (if we live that long), we are able to “retire” and enjoy ourselves. Our lives are so short that it seems meaningless to live this way. I go through periods where I wake up and find it very difficult to get out of bed and go to work, and I gloomily tread through the evenings knowing I must get up the next day and do it all over again. All the while, my list of things I’d like to do just keeps getting longer and longer as it is neglected. I begin to feel like life is out of control, like I’m reaching my wits end, like nothing makes any sense and nothing feels right.

I know I’m not alone in these feelings. I hear people often say that they are tired, stressed, overwhelmed, over-worked, under paid, unappreciated, depressed, and unhappy. So why are we all feeling this way and spending our short time here dissatisfied? What can we do about it?

I’ve thought about this a lot. I decided that if I’m not happy doing the work I’m doing now, I have three choices: first, I can just continue to do it anyway; second, I could quit working and probably eventually become homeless; or third, I could figure out what I would enjoy doing and do it. Now granted, I would enjoy not having to work another day of my life and spending every waking minute doing whatever I wanted. But the reality remains that bills have to be paid and food has to bought, and I am not, unfortunately, independently wealthy. So… I decided to go with option three. I am in the process of starting my own business. I am excited, but it is a painstakingly slow process. There is a part of me that would love to just quit my full-time job and devote all of my time to this business venture. And those days when it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning, or tough to get through the night of dread, it seems really easy to just call and say, “I’m never coming back to work.”

It’s times like these, though, that it is imperative to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the Man Upstairs. You see, sometimes I think we get so caught up in what we want and what we think we need that we often neglect to include God in our plan or just pray to Him that He’ll give us what we want. Rarely, do we actually stop and consider whether our desires fit his plan and even more rarely do we set aside the time to listen to what He has to say. When things get especially rough for me and I just want to quit, I try to take the time to just sit and listen. Often, I come away with a sense of peace that I must continue to work my full-time job for now. It’s not peaceful because I like it, but it’s peaceful because I know it’s His way. He wants to provide for all of my needs and He knows that He has already blessed me with a steady, good job to do that. Besides, I’m sure there is some reason that He wants me to come in to my work place everyday. He must need me there for something.

Does that mean I should abandon my dream of owning my own business? No. It just means that I have to do things God’s way. For some, that may mean quitting their job and moving into retirement. For others, it may mean finding more time to spend with family. Every one’s situation is different and I can never begin to give advice on what someone else should or shouldn’t do in their own lives. But I do know that His ways are the best ways even if they don’t align with our own ways. And whenever we choose to go down a path without Him or against His will, we are guaranteed resistance.

What is He directing you to change on the path you are walking right now?

Demolishing Debt

Proverbs 22:7 – The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22:26-27 – Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

1 Corinthians 7:23 – You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.

They say that one of the greatest causes of divorce is disagreements over finances. Thankfully, my husband and I seem to be on the same page in this area and have been very diligent in our spending since our first date. We managed to plan our wedding without accumulating any debt and in the first 7 months of marriage, we have paid off almost $8,000 in previously acquired debt. Over the course of last week, we decided to revamp our budget a bit. I created a spreadsheet of all of our bills, their monthly amounts due, and due dates. We looked at those pesky annual expenses that seem to sneak up on us every year like our auto registration fees, snowplowing service, and vacation expenses. We took those and added them into our monthly budget so that when those bills came due, the money would already be there. We also looked at any areas we might be able to cut costs.If we had implemented all of the cost saving measures we found, we could have reduced almost another $300 in outgoing expenses every MONTH! We took a look at our remaining debt (two student loans and a mortgage) and also what our savings goals were over the next few years (a larger emergency fund, a third vehicle, and a basement remodel) and decided to implement only some of the cost cutting measures. That being said, we should be debt free (with the exception of the mortgage) by next February. We are excited and motivated!

So what does all this have to do with a Christian daily-living blog post? Well, God has some pretty strong opinions about debt and His ideas are pretty motivating to us to get all that accumulated debt paid off. When we make a choice to go into debt, we become subject to those we are borrowing from. This could be a bank, a friend, a family member, etc. Nonetheless, we are then required to behave according to how that lender directs us. We must make payments when we are told and in the amounts we are told. If we don’t, we are penalized. Debt can very quickly spiral out of control and we can begin to lose things that we hold most dear. In some cases, our relationships. God does not include this in His plan for our lives. The Bible tells us over and over again how much God wants to and has already blessed us. So much so, that He has given us everything we need. A debt free life should be our way of life.

Sometimes getting to that debt free life means making some painful cuts to the things we enjoy for a while. For example, we have committed to eating on a $50 per week budget until our debt is paid off. That means creative grocery shopping and coupon cutting. It also means we won’t have prime cuts of meat for dinner or an excess of pre-packaged foods for snacks. We are also cutting our spending allowance each month. This means we must be conscious of the plans we make and we must find ways to spend our time that are cheap or even free. We are also looking at cutting out our satellite TV bill each month. Now that it’s summer, we can get outside and walk, work in the yard, play tennis, read, study our Bibles, or just sit and chat with another instead of watching a couple of hours of TV each night.

I highly encourage every single person that is taking the time to read this post to sit down and examine your spending habits. Make it a challenge to yourself to see how much debt you can pay off and how quickly. If you’re already debt free, make it a challenge to see where you can cut spending to increase savings. God wants us to enjoy our lives, not be bound by working off our debt for all of our years. I finished off our new budget binder with a cover sheet displaying this verse: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).”

Wishing you a happy and blessed week of savings!