The Cost Of Debt

Are you one of those people who took advantage of a special offer many credit card companies touted during Christmas? ‘Put it on the card now! Pay nothing until April?’ Guilty! The bill arrived this weekend. But the offer gave me the ‘opportunity’ to buy more gifts for those I love.

Merchants promote sales to draw us out to spend again, sometimes intentionally creating offers that are below their actual cost. This is because they know that the real profit is in selling credit to those who aren’t disciplined or able to pay their card balances in full.

Under those circumstances, ‘credit’ becomes a rather misleading word. It suggests that you can get something for free. Through psychological marketing strategies, we are massaged into believing we are deserving of the item and without it our lives will not feel complete.

We could say no, but that would require exercising restraint. Instead we are encouraged to reward ourselves. It’s all so painless; just sign today and you’ll have instant gratification. Never mind about tomorrow. It’s right now…this second that really matters.

Of course, under these circumstances, credit is actually the opposite of what it purports to be. Its underside is debt. We choose not to see that.

Our little flexible friends are precious to us because they narrow the gap between desire and possession. We go on spending because we can, or so we think. But today's choice is tomorrow's crisis, because being in debt is not about the never-never. It's about having to pay back, and for some that's an ever-tightening nightmare that can end in the terror of loan sharks and bailiffs.

Debt has become one of society’s addictions, and everyone's laboured by it; even heads of government, who run up staggering debts on our behalf. Even virtuous debts, such as mortgages on property, can tie us up for years. It's likely that university students will soon be carrying the cost of their courses, along with their mortgages, deep into middle age. They'll have to find jobs that pay them enough to pay it all back. And all the while they’ll be longing for that momentary panacea that instant gratification brings. The cycle will continue.

Whatever dreams they may have had, of doing something profound, or imaginative or risky with their lives are buried in decades of debt. There are so many people in today’s society who feel the allure of a vocation that they simply cannot afford to pursue.

It may be to enter a fulfilling but low-paid profession, or to risk being an artist or a poet, or to go abroad as a volunteer, or to enter the ministry. What holds them back is not selfishness or doubt, but the mortgage, the credit card bills, the need to maintain a steady income, which pays off what they owe. We are slaves to our salaries, which brings us, not freedom, but a form of bondage, which can burden the heart, destroy marriages, and most of all shatter dreams.

Perhaps it is not surprising that in the Bible debt is the deepest form of slavery. It takes away our essential freedom to serve God with all our heart and soul, and mind, and strength, and thus to find our true selves. Sometimes I wonder whether the angers and addictions of our society are not a symptom that we are rubbing against these chains.

Surrendering the ever-increasing desire to go shopping, or keeping up with the Joneses can actually create a freedom you've never before experienced! How many of us have selected clothes, or shoes, or cars because it makes you feel better about yourself because you want to be part of that society!

The famous hymnist, Charles Wesley, knew, that release from debt is a metaphor for salvation: 'My chains fell off , my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.'

No credit card can ever buy that kind of freedom!

Lord in Heaven, we long to see thee more clearly. Guide us in your light, help us to release the chains we adorne ourselves with each day. Lead us, strengthen us, protect us, forgive us.

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender Proverbs: 22:7