In Today’s credit-card crazy world, the credit vendors encourage you to buy now and pay later, and later and still later. The mindset is subversive to discipleship. Young people and young couples just starting out in life are particularly vulnerable to the come-ons that are offered. Get it You need it! You couldn’t possibly live another day without it. No money down. Months to pay. And sometimes older people can be baited, too, if they’re not careful. And then the trap is sprung. Financial woes take hold that could have been avoided with a bit more restraint and straight thinking. One’s spiritual life often suffers in direct proportion.
It is not out of place in our Sunday schools and CYCs, as well as with our families, to educate and warn young people against this powerful temptation that will almost certainly come on them, probably sooner than later. The following is a contrived case study that may be worth some thought and discussion. The case is not based on any situation known to the author.
Case Study
Bro. and Sis. C— are in their mid-thirties. He is a business executive and she is a medical assistant. Together they earn nearly $100,000 a year. They are also in deep financial trouble.
After their daughter was born, they decided to move from an apartment into a house. They wanted to live in a good neighborhood and the monthly mortgage payment ended up at $1,475 — more than twice their apartment rent. The house needed remodeling. The kitchen seemed “unusable.” They borrowed $9,800 to build a new one and spent $2,400 in restaurant bills while the work was being done. Of course, a new home also needed decorating, paint and paper, carpets, new furniture, a complete sound system and entertainment center with all the latest technology, a pool and landscaping. All of it bought on credit.
Bro. C—’s car began giving him some problems so he replaced it with a new $26,000 mid-size model adding about $500 to the monthly bills. In the meantime, the price of heating oil jumped 25% and the utility bills increased to well over $300 per month. In addition, the property taxes on home and car, along with insurance costs, added another $7,600 to the annual outlay.
Today Bro. and Sis. C— are over $50,000 in debt, not counting their mortgage payments and regular bills. They’ve maxed out 11 credit cards and are faced with borrowing money just to meet some of the minimum monthly payments on them. There is not enough equity in their new home to draw on it for the purpose of consolidating their debts. The problems just get worse. Collection agencies are phoning them regularly. They’ve bounced a few checks trying to play games with their payments. Almost daily they quarrel bitterly with each other about who is to blame for the mess they are in.
Questions
1 Can Christadelphians get themselves into problems like this? Should they?
2 What do you think are some of the reasons people let themselves get into financial difficulty?
3 Identify as many things as possible that indicate Bro and Sis C___ do not face life realistically
4 What have Bro and Sis C____ done to their spiritual life? Explain
5 How should any believer avoid getting into such a financial mess? (Luke 12 13-21, 14 25-30 and I Tim 66 should be of help here )
6 What does one have to do to get out of such difficulty?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One