The original goal to oust our credit card debt has, in the past 48 hours, independently evolved in the minds of both myself and my husband into a much broader idea to work toward a simpler life beyond our debt. It wasn't until this evening that we both realized that we were sharing in the same dream of ultimate emancipation from the current life we are living, and we are, like, never on the same page.
We discovered that the idea to get out of debt has awakened a deeper, more rooted desire in both of us to truly be free. Freedom from the burdens of creditors and from long work hours, yes, but also freedom to serve, and to give to others, freedom to wander the country in a travel trailer and live like storybook Gypsies, freedom to spend time together as a family and to be led to anything we are called to, without financial burdens holding us back. It's something that over the past several years we've talked about, but never acted upon. And quite frankly, I always saw it as just an implausible dream, because living a free life isn't what most "normal" people do, even in the "Land of the Free."
Our culture tells us that if we go to college, get a career, work hard at it for 30+ years, and if we're lucky, retire with something to show for it, then we will have earned that freedom to finally live. For some that is enough, but to us, that's not living at all. Religion aside, whether one believes in an Omnipotent Creator or not, most people can agree that Jesus Christ had some groundbreaking and often controversial things to say. We want to live the abundant life that He said could be ours, and we want to do it to the fullest degree. Now. Not when we're old, our kids are grown, and we've watched the world pass us by from our cubicles.
"no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
While many read this literally as a warning against trusting in the illusion of money's security and aspiring to be rich and powerful, I believe that it goes deeper. As followers of Christ I don't think of us as serving money; we haven't actively been storing treasures up for ourselves here, we aren't hoarders, we consider ourselves pretty generous with what we have. Yet here we are, in economic servitude, nonetheless.-Jesus
Matthew 6:24 NIV
No servant is greater than his master. You aren't your own boss, you answer to another. You might get paid, or, if you're a bond servant, you're a slave with a tarted up name. So it is with debt. Joshua goes to work to make money to keep our debt under control, actively and acutely serving money. If he decides to "quit," we'll be taken to court by collectors, and figuratively beaten to a pulp with additional fees and interest and penalties. The chains will further tighten. It may sound melodramatic to some, but to us, we're in bondage. We don't want to be indentured to money, yet here we are.
Thus begins our revolution. This year that we are setting aside to live simply isn't just a 365 day fast from the typical American Way of life, it's a rebellion. And more importantly for me, it's a declaration of a new covenant between our family and God in order to reestablish Him as the master of our lives.
"A servant of God has but one Master. It ill becomes the servant to seek to be rich, and great, and honored in that world where his Lord was poor, and mean, and despised."
-George Müeller
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