MAXED OUT: The Spiritual Cost of Personal Debt

[DemBones DemBones]

http://www.uscatholic.org/2005/09/cov0509.htm

A different approach to debt management, involving prayer as well as budgeting, combating the consumer mindset, and suggesting specific debt management programs, especially one that uses the Bible. It was started by a Protestant but, as the article says, we have the same verses in our Bibles that they have in theirs.


I liked this anecdote about the power of prayer:


Kym knows exactly what broke feels like.

A few months ago she was out of work and low on hope. When it looked as though she and her two children would be evicted from their California apartment, Kym—a Catholic with multiple sclerosis and no car to get her to her local parish—went online for help.

“Please pray for us,” she wrote on a Catholic online bulletin board.

She found a quick and sympathetic response—some of it coming from other Catholics who have had their own close calls with too many bills, not enough cash.

<snip>

Within three weeks, she got a job offer, a car that runs, and a lead on a place to live. “The power of prayer—it’s amazing what happens,” Kym says, and she begins to cry.



I know of at least two DUers who have gotten new jobs after asking us to pray for them here. And, thanks to pelagius, we now have an ongoing prayer thread.

[pelagius]

1. Debt is a huge spiritual crisis

And I'm working a spiritually-based program to manage my own debts. (I've heard good things about Dave Ramsey's program, but it costs to enroll and get the material, so I went another route.) As I tallied up my debts and expenses, I was shocked to see the huge gap between our income and outgo. We are in no way extravagant and live a very modest lifestytle, but all the little things added up. For what it's worth, I always made enough money until the collapse of Silicon Valley, but a year of un/underemployment and the reduction of my wages (when I finally did get a job) by 40% devasted us.

Thanks be to God for a way out!

[DemBones DemBones]

2. It is no wonder that debt is so common today, with

lay-offs, down-sizings, out-sourcings in so many types of businesses across the country. I read yesterday that a new Wal Mart in CA (Oakland, I think) got 11 THOUSAND applications for four hundred jobs. When that many people want to work at Wal Mart, something's very wrong with our society.

Unemployment is a terrible experience that, like most difficult experiences, can't be understood until you go through it. I've been downsized so I can empathize with you. It's not just the money, though the money's certainly important. When you've always worked hard and been a high achiever, it's unbelievable to lose a job because of executive mismanagement. We were always told that if we played by the rules, we'd get ahead, but I suppose that never has been true.

O8)


In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

God bless the poor,
God bless the sick,
And bless our human race.
God bless our food,
God bless our drink,
All homes, O God, embrace.

Amen.


(This is part of a table grace attributed to St. Brigid, but I think it fits most occasions and needs.)

[shrike]

3. Good post, Dem Bones

I've often thought that materialism results from a spiritual emptiness -- the need to consume, and consume, and consume, but nothing is ever enough, no "thing" will ever satisfy.

I see it a lot, even in family members who say they are Christian.