Reflections on God and Money: September 2013

Saturday 28 September 2013

Contentment in a Consumer Society (2)

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs…

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Living in a consumer society, the discontent we often feel is often the result of persuasive advertising and sales talk and not because of what we ourselves lack. We may think of ourselves as not too well off, and so be discontent, but so long as we have enough for a healthy lifestyle, we probably would not feel that way if everyone around us were less well off than us.

Would it be true of you that, if nobody had more than you had, you would probably be very well satisfied with what you have?

This means, in part, what it is to be ‘dead to the world’. That may seem a rather old-fashioned notion, something that past generations of Christians might have comforted themselves with during hard times, but it should be no less true of us. We should not be inordinately taken up with comforts and luxuries. When we have them, we should enjoy them, but we should not come to depend on them as if they are a right.

Jeremiah Burroughs likens Christian lifestyle to deer in a park. While the deer keep within the fences, no dogs go after them, and they can feed quietly; but if the deer get outside the fences, then every dog in the area will hunt them.

So it is with us: if we keep within the bounds of the command of God, of the way of life that he has explained in the Bible, we are protected. We may go about our business in peace and cast all our cares upon God.

We therefore need to seek employment based on our aptitudes and talents, rather than on the expectation of a good salary, and limit our careers to the sorts of jobs that we can do for the benefit of others. We should then do that work in God’s way, loving our neighbours as ourselves and working for their good as readily as for our own.

I will return to this theme of contentment in a consumer society next weekend.

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Friday 27 September 2013

Contentment in a Consumer Society (1)

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

Philippians 4:10-14

The only sure defence for a budget is contentment! Contentment, however, does not come naturally. St Paul had to learn it, as he explains in the above passage.

It seems to me that many people read the above passage and assume that when Paul wrote, ‘I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need’, that the harder lesson was doing without things. But I suspect that the harder lesson for Paul was facing plenty and having an abundance.

I think this is likely because Paul seems to have come from a rich family who were Roman citizens, whose wealth was probably the means for him to study the Jewish law and to become a successful Pharisee, so that there always lingered the temptation for him to settle back into a comfortable lifestyle.

This weekend and next, I will set out a few of the more basic principles of contentment and, in doing so, I am indebted to Jeremiah Burroughs’s book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

The road to contentment can only start by making up our minds to trust God. As Burroughs explains, we cannot make a ship go steady by propping it outside but there must be ballast inside the ship to keep it steady. A dogged trust in the God who made us and saved us is the ballast that will keep a Christian going steady in difficult times.

Burroughs also compares getting more involved in ‘world affairs’ to walking among thorns, when we could just as easily have gone another way. This does not mean that we should withdraw from society unnecessarily, as if we could find peace and contentment in an insulated Christian commune. Rather, it means to reject and avoid many of society’s values, ambitions, principles and strategies.

At a purely practical level, we need to remember that a consumer society engineers a great deal of dissatisfaction and discontent in order to keep people spending. The whims and fancies that society would persuade us are important are, in fact, important to very few people, if any at all.

I would invite you to think deeply about what motivates you to spend on goods and services that you do not need. I am not suggesting that all these things may be illegitimate or unimportant purchases, only that you consider your motivations.

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Saturday 21 September 2013

Redundant Credit (2)

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

While I do not think that St Paul’s words at the start of today’s Reflection are meant as an absolute prohibition on borrowing, it is certainly foolish and a waste of money to pay the interest on credit that does you not good at all.

Yesterday, I began to set out a plan that can help you clear redundant credit and, more generally, reduce your dependence on credit. The final stages follow.

Close your credit card accounts that you do not need: keep only one or two that you can use to help control your cash flow and which might come in useful in an emergency. (Do not simply cut up the cards but contact the lender to close the account.)

As you clear one credit commitment, add that payment on to what you are already repaying off the next most expensive. Keep doing this until everything is paid off.

When you have done this, get into the habit of paying off everything on your credit cards each month and repaying any overdraft you use within four weeks. There will be exceptions to this routine but they should be rare.

A word of warning. If you think of transferring balances to a lower APR, remember to check if you have to pay a handling fee. Do not put new purchases on the same credit card as balance transfers because your payments will be used to clear the cheap transfers before the purchases that generate more interest.

If you are not good at resisting the temptation to buy something with a credit card that you could not otherwise afford, or are better off not buying for some reason, consider leaving the card at home and shopping with cash. Also, do not have the card details already entered into websites, so that you cannot buy something just by clicking on an icon but have to enter all the card details each time. If these 'barriers' to buying do not help you, you may be better off not having a credit card at all.

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