Broke

I get tired of saying this, but if you're broke you can't keep on borrowing money and magically hoping that things will change. It's not going to happen whether you are a household or if you are the United States of Broke America.

Passing the Buck

Unbelievable. I haven't even made my first official payment yet, and North American Savings Bank has already sold my mortgage to Wells Fargo.

Different Definitions of Luxury

Why is it that I don't even blink thinking about paying one thousand dollars for a new computer, but cringe when thinking about buying a thousand-dollar couch?

Maybe it has something to do with my upbringing. Back in the '80's and '90's computers cost $2000. Finding one for a mere thousand meant that you bought one of the lowest and slowest computers around. Couches, on the other, can be had for less than a thousand. Paying that much was a luxury.

My dad's bookkeeping business relied on computers. After work was done, it doubled as a fun toy. Couches, well, they were associated with the most sedentary of all activities: watching TV.

When I lived in Hillsboro, I had a dual core computer with two LCD screens. Outside in the living room I had bean bags as sitting accessories for my guests. (Thanks, Portlanders, for tolerating 3 years of that.) I suppose if it were up to me--and only me--I would have bean bags again today.

Ah, the different definitions of luxury.

Meditation on Wealth

"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

This sentence clearly ties worldly wealth to the eternal credit system: people. When Jesus spoke these words, he made it clear that we are to use the things of this world to gain other things of eternal importance. Tucked into this sentence is the real possibility that the world wealth we have may one day cease to exist--be all used up--as we continue to trade for the heavenly currency.

I was taught this while young. As the primary wage earner of a family that now has financial duties to a bank and to the protection of this family, the choice between worldly wealth and heavenly currency has become harder. Yet today's reading cuts through the haze that surrounds my choices, and little lies that I tell myself. Jesus' words are clear. Use world wealth to gain friends for yourself, and you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. And yes, you may go broke in the process.

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