My Debt Story

“90 Days Same As Cash” That is how I was hooked the first time. My wife and I had just gotten married. We were still in college and I found a guitar I had to have. So I bought it for 90 Days same as cash. Because, since my wife had a job, we could afford it. Well then her class load was too much and she needed to drop the job. And the 90 Days same as cash turned into 29% interest. So a $600 guitar wound up costing me… $1,147.

From then on my wonderful wife and I were slaves to debt. We loved it. We bought stuff we didn’t need. We bought stuff we couldn’t afford. 1 year no interest here. 18 months no interest there. I shutter to think about all the meals we charged in seminary that we paid off YEARS later. Well things were bad, but in Lynchburg, VA things got a lot worse. We bought a house 0% down. 2 years later we got a new 125% second, you know where you could borrow up to 125% of your home’s value. And we used it to pay off some cards. Which by the way is really stupid, because you are taking an unsecured debt and making it a secured debt. In other words, they will not come and take back the steaks you just charged at the store. But now that it is a home loan they can put a lien on your house. 1 year later, we are moving to SC. And our house sits in a depressed real estate market for 10 months. With us paying out ~1,300 in mortgage payments and utilities. During this time we borrowed from everything. Credit cards, retirement and the like. When the dust settled we were over $30,000 in debt and making less than that a year. You would think we would learn our lesson wouldn’t you?

Well, we did, but not at first. But we finally got to the point where we looked at our income and looked at our outgo, and realized the bleeding had to stop. And then some stuff started to happen in our church. Stuff, I felt like God was leading me to handle. But in so doing, would put my job at risk. And because I was in debt up past my eyeballs, I chickened out. It was then when I read a verse for the first time and it made complete sense. Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (NASB). I unwittingly chose to enslave myself to something so appropriately named… “Master Card”.

Why am I telling you this? Why put it out there for the whole world to see? Because, I know I am not alone. There are other Pastors out there who have sold themselves into bondage, not to our Lord, but to another “Master”. And my prayer is that one of you (or many of you) will read this and the subsequent posts and realize it is not God’s will for your life to live in debt to anyone other than Him.

I know it’s weird. But I challenge you to prove me wrong with Scripture.