in the early 70’s i worked in a very well to do neighborhood. the area around orchard and university boasted houses that, today, would sell for millions of dollars. many ceo’s, business owners and even a few denver broncos  resided there and could well afford the lavish lifestyle. but there was another group of people who call this neighborhood home, though they live in the somewhat cheaper homes (the $500,000 ones). they could barely afford the house, but nothing else. no drapes and some rooms had no furniture, at all. to me, this seemed sorta stupid. why not buy a cheaper house that could be easily furnished and enjoyed?

but i’ve begun to realize, that before i cast judgment on others, i need to examine how i do things, too.

can you see yourself in the following scenario? heading home from the airport after a fantastic vacation or cruise, in a fancy car that has all the bells and whistles and an engine bigger that you will ever need. playing your state of the art sound system, for the world to hear, as you go turn into the drive thru of your favorite starbucks and order your favorite shot of liquid caffeine you stop at the mail box and pick up a handful of bills and a pile of magazines. when you step into your humble abode you turn on the computer to check your e-mail or facebook. after checking the answering machine, on your land line, for messages you might not have received on your cell phone you proceed to the fridge, you grab a beer or diet pepsi and a bag of chips or bowl of ice cream. plopping down in front of your high def plasma tv, you grab the remote and begin surfing though all the channels that are available with your cable package, while you light up a cigarette or a joint. after finding nothing to watch you click on the pay per view menu and watch some championship boxing or maybe an x rated movie.

but your mind wonders, as you look at the pile of bills and wonder why you don’t have money for food, rent or that prescription drug, you so badly need.  bemoaning the fact that God, the rich man, the system or just plain luck has, somehow, screwed you over. if you just had more money, you think, life would be fine.

if you can see yourself in some or all of this scenarios you may want to stop reading right now. because this blog will probably annoy you or even piss you off. my hope is that it might convict you to the foolishness of your thinking. you see, except for the hd tv and the cable tv (2 things i’m not personally into), i have lived my life in all of these situation, at on time or another.

life is about choices. we are all slaves to our choices. and each choice comes with a result that is called a consequence. good choices produce good results while poor ones have bad consequences. some very harsh ones. i’ve always found a way to fund my addictions, but not always enough to pay my bills. anyone who has ever been in any sort of recovery program has heard: “doing the same thing over and over the same way and expecting a different result is insane” money is finite. each of us has a certain amount. some more. some less. but the fact remains that each of us have a certain amount of money to live on. if the money coming in is $100 and the amount going out is $101, we are going to have a problem. it’s called debt.

a few weeks ago karl tackled the topic of money, in church. kudos to you karl, for having the guts to take on this hard subject. it’s goal was not to guilt or shame people into giving 10% to the local church, using malachi as a spring board. this series was to help us realize that money can be a tool that we can use to help others as God is calling us to be generous. no pledge card. no giving envelopes. just between us and God. at the refuge we are ready to help with food or gas cards or other tangible gifts when folks find themselves in unusual positions of need. but we are trying to talk a proactive role in helping friends find permanent solutions to ongoing financial problems. there is an a old saying that goes like this: “give a man a fish and he eats for a day. teach him to fish and her eats foever”. the way we learn to fish is to make a budget. a budget, is simply a plan for spending less than what we make. karl is always available to help anyone that is interested in using this tool. in the example above i, like many other, believe that i need things that are really only wants.

i have a grandson who will say i need some candy. i need that toy. i need that game. he has confused what he wants with what he needs. brody is only four years old, but he thinks like many of us still think. the bible say we need food and clothes. i’m pretty sure we can all afford that. in 1 timothy 6:8 paul says: “so if we have enough food and clotheing, let us be content”. God doesn’t say we need a place to live (Jesus didn’t have one), by i’ll be more benevelont than God and allow that we need a place to stay. but we don’t need to go on vacation, drive any car(fancy or not). drink a fancy starbucks drink or any coffee, for that matter. the internet, tv (cable or not, hd or not), cell phones and pay perview are all wants. likewise, we don’t need soda, beer, chips, cigarettes, joints, porn etc to live.

40 years ago, i was going on a vacation, with a friend. we were out of college and wanted to go to  the west coast. we had been there before, but had always driven. this time we wanted to fly. the problem was that we would need a car, while we were there. we had the money for the plane ticket, the car and the vacation. the was one problem, though. in order to get a rental car we needed a credit card. neither of us had or wanted one. i chose to get one and pay it off as soon as the bill came it. that was 40 years ago and that card has never had a zero balance. it still doesn’t. i shudder to think how many thousands of dollars of interest i’ve paid to my visa company. i know it’s enough to buy the new car i’d like to get.the one with the bells and whistles. credit card=bad choice. i bought a house 34 years ago, so you would think it was paid off by now. well, it was once, but then came the choice to borrow a little against it. a few weeks ago , i tried to borrow $2000 money to carpet my home. i didn’t qualify. not because i didn’t have enough net worth,  but because sometimes i don’t pay my bills on time and because i have made the mistake of co-signing for family and friends and now my credit sucks. poor choices. recently i sat down with karl and can up with a plan to get my finances in order. it involves the dreaded budget, but for the first time in many, many years i feel i have the ability to get my expenses to be less that my income. and this gives me peace. but it will be all about making the right CHOICES. lol.