"I've had ENOUGH!"
"It's enough…"
"It's not enough…"
"It's NEVER enough!"
On an on… There are a lot of ways to think of "enough". I am looking at "enough" as it relates to finances… Why? Because I've had ENOUGH! I've had enough of the lies and the chains that I chose to believe… I did the deed. It is nobody else's fault. "I signed up for the ride…" and I intend to do everything I can to convince you that it is not worth it.
Speaking of enough… do you have enough? With regard to wealth I want to share this passage in Ecclesiastes 5
Ecclesiastes 5:10-18 (New International Version)
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
So, have you found "enough", or like the verse above, are you on a wild goose chase? I suspect that if you are anything like me, you have never met a paycheck that you just couldn't quite spend… or a great deal that you could walk away from. I suspect that like me, you never quite found that the next new toy was actually "enough?" It got home and we had fun, the toy and I for about five minutes?
Well, that's how I used to be. I found another way to "enough" that is healthy. It started when I realized that the crazy dude on the radio was right and I knew I was not obeying Scripture.
"…The borrower is servant to the lender…" Now, I know that it is a Scripture and I knew it before, but I never really heard it like that – ENOUGH!!! Enough spending, debt, slavery… my desires had turned my finances, our finances, into an unwieldy, unyielding maze of chains and fetters. Enough of this idea that I can justify spending without a plan. Enough of the arguments. Enough of the fights. Yell it at yourself, "ENOUGH!!!!" and you might get how fed up I had gotten.
I convinced my wife to go to a session with the crazy dude in Spokane… with about 3,000 people just like us. She came with no small amount of coaxing from me, but I think that I finally convinced her with a promise to stop with the "Dave says…" and the brow-beating. (Guys, Scriptures, even with the best of intentions, must be presented differently than the way I did it…) For five hours, Dave talked to us about life and money, re-aligning our thinking and giving us a glimmer of hope. We sat in the car for a moment, and looking at each other knew that we could do this. We'd had ENOUGH…
That was May 2003 if I recall. We were both working, and were barely making the bills from month to month. We could not breathe financially and the stress from this was eating our marriage alive. I know that the process that we went through after that night was not only marriage strengthening. Within three years we had survived a number of $1,200 unexpected expenses, had two babies, gone down to one income and paid off well in excess of $18,000 of credit card, auto and student loans.
There is a process that works, and then there is "normal". Normal in our culture is broke. Normal in our culture says, "…but I need…" Normal is as much mortgage payment as you can afford. Normal is two weeks of unemployment from financial disaster.
Proverbs 14:12 (New International Version)
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.
So, if normal is broke, what got into me to allow myself to violate God's own word?! I knew that I shouldn't. I knew the Bible said to stay out of debt… What was the deal with that!
The blunt answer is that I had simply ignored the Godly input of teachers, the admonitions of my parents and the very word of God itself… Easier to see it that way now than then, because then it seemed like the only option at the time. The car needed fixed, so I put the charge on my account. I could pay off the newer car in a couple months, what's a few dollars of interest? One transaction at a time, I justified the debt, like the story of boiling the frog slowly; I nearly destroyed our financial and married future by trusting my own senses, all the while slowly adding stress to everything.
You may think that debt is OK. You may not think it has a strangle hold on you, that you are different in this case or that, but my friend, this is exactly how "normal" now has the same meaning as broke. It is not OK. Your good credit score is not God's answer to your prayers. Your credit card is not an emergency fund, it is a temptation waiting to catch you at a weak moment.
I have news for you if you think you are different: Like the first taste of beer, the first hit of weed, nobody really thinks that he or she is going to be an addict – a slave to their own passions. Yet, while the numbers for alcohol alone are staggering, they pale in comparison to the financial disasters that have destroyed homes and lives.
Finances are said to be the number one reason for divorce in first marriages. Larry Burkett wrote in one of his books that he believed that it was because the young married kids want to live at the comfort level that they grew up and left - just like their parents live. The only thing is... ...it took their parents thirty years to get there.
Money, finances are not the trouble - these are tools - it is the mistakes, immaturity and indiscipline that hurts us. We think that getting stuff will bring joy and happiness, so we sacrifice our freedom one transaction at a time. Marriages and families are being ruined on the alter of stuff... ...more bluntly the debt, the sacrifice that we make to get that stuff.
Proverbs 6
Warnings Against Folly
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if you have struck hands in pledge for another,
2 if you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth,
3 then do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands:
Go and humble yourself;
press your plea with your neighbor!
4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
One of Dave's most invigorating rants is based on the passage shown above. RUN… Run like your life depends upon it!!!
The next verse begins to delve into diligence and hard work, saving for the future. Why? Because that rainy day fund will become necessary not "if" but "when" it rains. People that I talk to sometimes mention a credit card that they keep for emergencies like it is some little exotic pet that they keep in a cage just for emergencies… It is a snake that will bite you, get rid of the thing! Get your own emergency fund… Save something from your paycheck while you can. Then when the paycheck doesn't come in you have a mortgage payment or two and some grocery money while you work on the next job.
Proverbs 22:3 (New International Version)
3 A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge,
but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
I shudder to think what God would have to say about someone like me, who having been warned, just hid my eyes from the danger!
Proverbs 21:20 (New International Version)
20 In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil,
but a foolish man devours all he has.
Ohhhh… There I am again. Do you see it? I was the foolish man.
I spent every dime. No savings. I gave my tithe, usually, but the Bible pretty much says I was STUPID because I spent ALL of the rest. I should have been able to live on what God gave me and been able to give too.
This is not where I get to enter some kind of faith excuse. This is not where I get to say that I gave away what I might have otherwise saved. It doesn't work that way. But if I am faithful to take care of the resources that God gives me, guess what?
He has more. I am convinced that He wants to give it to His kids, but if He did that, then most of us would ruin ourselves with it. He tells us repeatedly that He will take care of us - might I add "perfectly?" The question is, "Are the troubles that we suffer of our own making?"
If so, then, "That's not 'good enough!'" It's not good enough that we manage to tithe but not save. Truly, God is faithful and as we show ourselves faithful in little, He will provide as necessary, but don't expect God to bless mismanagement. I have faith - faith that God will turn up the heat just enough to help you recognize the importance of diligence in your finances. There will be both fat and lean times, so prepare for them insofar as He blesses you to do so. He says it over and over and over again… "The prudent man sees danger afar off and prepares for it..."
Are you now struggling to get everything paid? Commit to Him your daily bread, then make a true accounting of your income and your expenses. Take responsibility to be a good steward of what you do have. I trust that as with us, the heart that is committed to Him and His ways will find that He is Enough. This is where enough and contentment live together. This is where financial madness turns to peaceful, resolute, passionate and decisive action.
Dave, the crazy dude on the radio, says all the time, "Personal finances are %80 personal..." That means that if you want a change in your finances, then you will have to change your "personal."
It is enough. Enough debt. Enough heartache. Enough arguing. And though there will be difficulties, there is a God who wants to be your Enough while you take on whatever hurdle is in your path.
Philippians 1:6 is a favorite of mine… "…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Commit your ways to Him (Proverbs 3:5-6) and He will carry you. Verse after verse, passage after passage the Bible is more real to me all the time. As I honor His word in things that I find in it, He is faithful to provide the means. That is how faith works.
I hope that I haven't hurt any feelings because that isn't my goal here. I made some nearly tragic errors. I hope to convey to anyone reading the importance of sticking to the word of God – however they might feel otherwise.
The way to start digging out of a hole is first to "stop digging deeper." If you are the paramedic type, then you know the importance of "stop the bleeding". Commit yourself to balancing the budget and the checking account. Commit mutually to your spouse to cut the credit cards, to spend only with cash. Pay the priorities first – Food, shelter, gas, and on down until the money is gone. Save a small emergency fund today. Pay only minimums until that is up to something acceptable – Dave recommends $1,000. I think that up to $2,000 might sometimes be useful for some people, but we did the $1,000 and somehow came up with the rest whenever those unexpected things came up.
Start now. Start by writing down your expenses in order of priority. If you need to make a change, then you and your spouse make time to decide how to move the money around to fit again. Then, start over again on the next check. Every single time that you get paid, you do it again. Will it be tough? Yes. Will you fall off the budget wagon? Yes. The question that you can only answer is whether your enough is enough to get you to pick yourself back up and get back on...
I went into more detail on how to set this up earlier and I will share more on how we got this to work, but start with this and you will probably find that there is Enough there – maybe even more than you thought. Please feel free to call us or email if you like. I am not a counselor, but we can have a cup of coffee and I can show you how we do things…
In the meantime, remember the lillies of the field... Your Heavenly Father cares for you, and He has a plan for you and your family. If you are struggling, then keep reading and re-reading Matthew 6 - memorize it and live it. One day at a time, one decision at a time commit things to the Lord in prayer.
God Bless!
