Wealth

Three part series in which I discuss how health, wealth, & happiness play a part in my journey.

Like so many Americans, we are in debt. A lot of debt. And we are trying to pay it off.

Here's the breakdown according to December 2011 statements:

Best Buy Credit Card- $1346.55

My personal Credit Card- $1497.16

Compass Visa- $3112.04

Compass Gold- $5285.00

Overdraft LOC- 654.67

TOTAL: $11,895.42

(I didn't add in my loans, because for some reason, that just hasn't really registered in our minds as debt... in our family, it falls more into the house mortgage category. But for the record I have $28745.33 in student loans for 5 years of undergrad at a small public liberal arts institution.)

To be fair, a majority of this debt was gained (made/happened/etc?) through not-so-wise-decisions made during J's previous marriage, so it has been with us since we started dating over 5 years ago. My personal credit card was used a lot for our wedding stuff & again for "emergencies" when J was out of work for 3 months (not smart I know, but we did what we had to in order to survive).

I do want to take a minute to commend J. He has been working diligently at paying off his debt for as long as I've known him. And since we've been dating he/we have paid off 3 debts (when we first started dating we owed about $20k to various places) & managed to bring the rest of the balances down a lot while eking out a life for ourselves.

This year it is my goal to pay off at least 2 of these debts (the Best Buy card & the LOC) & after looking at my budget for the year, we may be able to pay down my credit card A LOT (I hope to have it paid off by next Spring)... as long as we don't have any major changes.

And honestly, I love planning this stuff. Part of me gets stressed when I look at how much we owe because by nature I am a worrier, but then I look at how far we've come &/or I write out a budget & see how efficiently we can pay it off & I end up feeling uplifted and empowered because I know WE CAN DO THIS! We don't have to be a slave to our debts. We can work our way out from under them & live fulfilling lives as a little family in a little house in our little town. And that makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. Who knew the right attitude about debt could do that?

A Struggle With My Old Life

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and today I woke up feeling burdened to get this off my chest.

I am a Christian. But, this is a fairly recent development. I mean, I was baptized when I was little, but after that I went my own way. In high school, I proudly declared that I didn't believe in God. I even admit to taking it a step further and making fun of many Christians and their crazy belief in this... deity. I couldn't understand how anyone could have faith in something when there was no proof. It really made absolutely no sense to me. And if I'm being really truthful, sometimes it still doesn't completely make sense. After meeting J & his family and beginning to go to church & read the Bible, and reflecting, and going through my own set of trials, and being rescued by something unearthly, and just... feeling, I realized that Christians weren't wrong. I was. But, I still struggle almost daily with this past life of unbelief. I find myself questioning myself in the same ridiculing manner of high school. How could someone really be resurrected? How could someone willingly sacrifice themselves? How can I be sure of all these things I (am supposed to) believe? What kind of fool just believes one book to be proof? Honestly, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

But, about a month ago I was reading and this passage just stood out to me and my desire to know everything:

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

This was exactly what I needed to read. Funny how God knows what you need even if you don't. It's nice to read that I was not the only one struggling with "wisdom" and the desire to understand God.

In our small group one day a woman said something to the effect of: "We are only humans with human intellect and only have the capacity to understand humans and our nature. That's one way to know that this story isn't made up by humans, because this story defies human understanding." And that struck me as pretty profound.

It's also comforting to know that I am not the only one who will never fulfill that desire on my own. There is no way for a human alone to understand God. We only have the capacity for human understanding. But the Spirit teaches us.

And mostly, it's encouraging to have this passage to keep my old demons at bay.