Debt and Sweat

Last night the youth group met over at the home fo Chris and Julie Bridges for a devotional. (Thank you, Bridges family, for hosting!! Clayton, I hope you recover quickly from your surgery.) In our devotional, we looked at Matthew 6:19-24. In this passage, Jesus talks about where our true possessions and treasures, as Christians, should be. Not here on earth, but in heaven.

I told them briefly about how I used to spend, spend and then spend some more. How stuff (gadgets, gizmos, etc) seemed to take up my life all the while obstructing my view to what was really important: Jesus and His Kingdom! And at the same time how the monster of debt crept in. Scary thing, materialism is.

We looked at ways to remedy the desire to acquire stuff. Richard J. Foster has a lot to say about this in his chapter on simplicity from the great Christian Classic, Celebration of Discipline. Here are 5 points that I spoke on from that chapter:

"1. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.

2. Develop a habit of giving things away.

3. Learn to enjoy things without owning them.

4. Look with a healthy skepticism at all "buy now, pay later" schemes.

5. Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God."