Debt
23/05/15 05:19
My father was an entrepreneur at heart. After he completed his military service, he started a flying service that offered sales, instruction, maintenance and fuel services. He built a series of T-hangers and began to rent space to customers to store their airplanes. This led to the need to become skilled at roofing. His business expanded into agricultural spraying, search and rescue, air ambulance, fire patrol and a number of federal and state contract services. After a number of years, he purchased a farm machinery dealership. While still running the airport, he expanded that business, adding to the shop several times as he added a feed warehouse, expanded parts and repair services and began to reach out selling machinery in a wider and wider circle. This led to a business of renting and leasing farm and construction machinery and a trucking business that specialized in hauling machinery. He was constantly thinking of new companies and new ways to expand his business. As an entrepreneur, he considered debt as a cost of doing business. His farm machinery business required him to use factory credit programs to increase his inventory. He carried a line of credit at the bank that allowed him to make big purchases. As long as his profit from an investment exceeded the cost of credit, he didn’t mind borrowing money.
Growing up, I was aware that I had relatives with much different attitudes towards debt. One of my uncles was a farmer all of his life and he expanded his operations without ever borrowing money. If he didn’t have the money, he didn’t make the purchase. They build their home with available cash. They drove vehicles that were purchased from money they had saved. He was considered to be successful and was highly respected by other family members, including my father.
Over the years, I have borrowed money and paid it back for a variety of projects. We borrowed a little money to complex our graduate educations. Compared to student debt in this generation, the amount we borrowed was very small and it was repaid about five years after we graduated despite our comparatively small salaries in the early years of our career. We have borrowed money to purchase cars, used credit cards and purchased our home with a mortgage. Over the years interest rates have varied widely and there have been times when we have paid more than we should have in interest charges.
I am quick to say to the people I serve, “Don’t turn to your minister for financial advice.” The same applies to legal advice and medical advice. Although there are churches and church agencies that provide financial education and advice, I’ve never considered myself to be an expert in that arena.
The financial debt I have incurred in my life has always been manageable. I’ve figured out how to keep my payments current and maintain a good credit rating. I have carried life insurance that exceeded the debt that I have carried and disability insurance that guarantees that I’ll be able to repay borrowed funds.
There are other debts, however. Emerson wrote, “We are born with a mortgage. That mortgage is a debt that we owe to the past and the future.” As I age, I have become more and more aware of that debt.
I am the beneficiary of a great deal of hard work, sacrifice, and faithfulness that generations have invested in the future. Some of that is obvious. We have received modest financial inheritance from some of our relatives. I am a partner, with my siblings, in a piece of recreational property that belonged to my parents and was passed to us free of debt. There are other inheritances, and these are the most valuable, that don’t have to do with the transfer of financial resources.
I stand in a long line of people who have considered honesty and integrity to be critical to a life well-lived. I was taught from an early age by example the value of investing time and energy in relationships. I am the product of generations of healthy marriages and lasting commitments.
The cornerstone of my life, my faith, is based on generations of people who thought about God, formed relationships with God, and passed on their understandings to future generations. It once was the case, in ancient times, that human sacrifice was common. Many ancient people found the practice to be not only acceptable, but required of them. Our grandfather Abraham came very close to the sacrifice of his own son, Isaac. We will never know all of the details of that encounter on the mountain, but the basic outline of the story is clear. God interrupted the process. Isaac was not only spared, but our people learned once and for all time that human sacrifice was not a dynamic in our relationship with God. Never will such a sacrifice be demanded of us. I believe that so deeply that I found the courage to name my own son Isaac.
In the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus our people learned another “once for all times” lesson. Love never dies. Wisdom can fail us. Intelligence and understandings are always imperfect. Our own strength is insufficient. But love will never fail us. In a world where the cycles of life and death are so evident, there are things that reach beyond the span of a single life. Our impact is more than one generation.
Knowing that reminds me of the debt that I owe not only to those who have gone before, but also to those who will follow after me. I owe it to them to hand on the wisdom of previous generations. I owe it to them to be a steward of the resources that have been entrusted to my in my time. I am one link in a long line of faith and love that connects our forebears with our grandchildren.
A mortgage isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This debt that I owe gives me purpose and adds meaning to the work that I do. The debt I owe to previous generations is too great for me to repay in the span of a single life, but I have been given the opportunity to invest in the future. It is a future that has the potential to yield great dividends.
Growing up, I was aware that I had relatives with much different attitudes towards debt. One of my uncles was a farmer all of his life and he expanded his operations without ever borrowing money. If he didn’t have the money, he didn’t make the purchase. They build their home with available cash. They drove vehicles that were purchased from money they had saved. He was considered to be successful and was highly respected by other family members, including my father.
Over the years, I have borrowed money and paid it back for a variety of projects. We borrowed a little money to complex our graduate educations. Compared to student debt in this generation, the amount we borrowed was very small and it was repaid about five years after we graduated despite our comparatively small salaries in the early years of our career. We have borrowed money to purchase cars, used credit cards and purchased our home with a mortgage. Over the years interest rates have varied widely and there have been times when we have paid more than we should have in interest charges.
I am quick to say to the people I serve, “Don’t turn to your minister for financial advice.” The same applies to legal advice and medical advice. Although there are churches and church agencies that provide financial education and advice, I’ve never considered myself to be an expert in that arena.
The financial debt I have incurred in my life has always been manageable. I’ve figured out how to keep my payments current and maintain a good credit rating. I have carried life insurance that exceeded the debt that I have carried and disability insurance that guarantees that I’ll be able to repay borrowed funds.
There are other debts, however. Emerson wrote, “We are born with a mortgage. That mortgage is a debt that we owe to the past and the future.” As I age, I have become more and more aware of that debt.
I am the beneficiary of a great deal of hard work, sacrifice, and faithfulness that generations have invested in the future. Some of that is obvious. We have received modest financial inheritance from some of our relatives. I am a partner, with my siblings, in a piece of recreational property that belonged to my parents and was passed to us free of debt. There are other inheritances, and these are the most valuable, that don’t have to do with the transfer of financial resources.
I stand in a long line of people who have considered honesty and integrity to be critical to a life well-lived. I was taught from an early age by example the value of investing time and energy in relationships. I am the product of generations of healthy marriages and lasting commitments.
The cornerstone of my life, my faith, is based on generations of people who thought about God, formed relationships with God, and passed on their understandings to future generations. It once was the case, in ancient times, that human sacrifice was common. Many ancient people found the practice to be not only acceptable, but required of them. Our grandfather Abraham came very close to the sacrifice of his own son, Isaac. We will never know all of the details of that encounter on the mountain, but the basic outline of the story is clear. God interrupted the process. Isaac was not only spared, but our people learned once and for all time that human sacrifice was not a dynamic in our relationship with God. Never will such a sacrifice be demanded of us. I believe that so deeply that I found the courage to name my own son Isaac.
In the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus our people learned another “once for all times” lesson. Love never dies. Wisdom can fail us. Intelligence and understandings are always imperfect. Our own strength is insufficient. But love will never fail us. In a world where the cycles of life and death are so evident, there are things that reach beyond the span of a single life. Our impact is more than one generation.
Knowing that reminds me of the debt that I owe not only to those who have gone before, but also to those who will follow after me. I owe it to them to hand on the wisdom of previous generations. I owe it to them to be a steward of the resources that have been entrusted to my in my time. I am one link in a long line of faith and love that connects our forebears with our grandchildren.
A mortgage isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This debt that I owe gives me purpose and adds meaning to the work that I do. The debt I owe to previous generations is too great for me to repay in the span of a single life, but I have been given the opportunity to invest in the future. It is a future that has the potential to yield great dividends.