I’m mixing up holidays today.  This morning when I got online to balance our checkbook, I saw that the big check I wrote to pay off our student loan had cleared.  This is a big deal. 

Can I tell you why?

Ten years ago my wife and I had so much debt that we couldn't eat.  Neither one of us had ever been taught about budgeting or had any Biblical appreciation for handling money.  We did what we had seen and what our culture taught us.  We had a student loan, we owed the IRS $10,000, owed tens of thousands of dollars for all of Matthew's medical bills, owed on two cars, had a line of credit, and at least two credit cards.  I shudder now even typing it all out. 

I remember the hopelessness of our situation.  We had spiraled out of control.  My wife had heard of the United Way’s financial counseling service, so I gave it a shot.  But when I went for a consultation, the woman there looked at my budget for a few minutes and then said these encouraging words.  "I have no idea how I can help you."  I left her office, got in my car, and just sat there feeling like a complete failure.  I didn’t know what to do or where to go. 

Then God intervened. 

A few weeks after my visit to the United Way, my wife and I received a certified letter in the mail from an attorney representing one of the medical companies we owed money to.  The letter stated that if we didn't pay them $2,500 we were going to be taken to court.   A few days after getting it, I was in such a state of despair that I left work and went home.  I sat in our empty home that afternoon and just prayed.  I wasn't close to God at the time.  Not at all.  But I asked Him to help me. 

The very next day a letter from my Grandmother’s brother in Erie, PA arrived.  He had recently sold his home and wanted to give us some of the equity to help with our medical bills.  The enclosed check was for $2,500.  Freaky coincidence?  I don’t believe in those any more.  God helped save my family from something that would have finally broken us.  I’m not saying that God will always come through the way we want Him to.  I don’t understand why some prayers are specifically answered and some aren’t.  And nothing like that has ever happened to me again.  But for the first time in my life, I realized there was a part of God’s character that I had never known.  The God I met that day was a loving, gentle father who listened to my cries, loved me deeply, and demonstrated His compassion.   

I made a decision to trust God to help me work my way out of the financial hole we were in.  I began studying what the Bible says about money and started meeting with older men who were financially successful.  I read books written by Larry Burkett and attended Crown Ministry classes.  Three years ago, I heard of Dave Ramsey and began studying his material. 

There have been many setbacks.  Trying to raise a family of three, four, five and then six kids while you’re paying off a ton of debt has been hard.  Houses have to be repaired, dishwashers die, cars have to be replaced, clothes have to be bought, etc., etc., etc.  I haven’t always made the perfect financial decisions.  (Old habits die hard.)  Five years ago my income was cut by a third overnight. Literally overnight.  (Then stayed there until this past summer.)  But by learning and applying Biblical principles, my wife and I have slowly been working our way out of a mess.  We’re close to achieving the goal we have of becoming debt free. 

What I hope you get out of all this rambling is that it’s ok to be weird.  Everyone around you is using credit cards and up to their eyeballs in debt.  Be weird.  Use cash.  Everyone around you is getting funky home mortgage loans to get the most house they can stretch out of their income.  Be weird.  Go conventional fixed rate while they’re at an all time low.  All your friends are using student loans to get their degree and are then in debt for years and years when they graduate.  Be weird.  Work part time jobs, get financial aid, do whatever it takes to graduate with no debt so that you’re free to take on the world. 

Take it from one who’s been at the bottom.  Be weird.  Don’t go into debt!!!!!!!   

Thank you Lord for helping us through this and never giving up on me.  “All glory… and honor… forever and ever… amen.”