The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7
“Debt does not discriminate based on income. It’s not the lack of income that leads us into debt, but rather our decisions. Debt is a trap that’s crushing people from every age, race, income, education, profession, and geography.”
Travis Shelton in “750 Sessions, Oh My!” blog post on 5 June 2024. Check out these resources from Travis. Website: www.travisshelton.com / The Daily Meaning blog: www.travisshelton.com/blog / Podcast: https://podfollow.com/meaning-over-money
It’s been a privilege to journey with Travis over more than a decade since we met in Iowa. He left his corporate job and has found joy helping people find freedom from the slavery of debt.
I read his daily blog and saw this a few days ago. He recounted 10 lessons he’s learned from 750 coaching sessions with people, helping them find new life and learn to make good decisions.
Since 750 is a lot of lessons, I want to reflect on what Travis can teach us this week. Today’s post contains an operative word: decisions. Our decisions to spend money we don’t have to purchase things crushes us. Imagine if everyone simply lived within their means.
It’s about controlling our wants, curbing our desires. But the marketing messages calling us to get more, newer, and better things cause debt to swallow us. Interestingly, the more developed the country, as I see in my travels, the more troubles with debt.
Seriously, in poor places, few have access to credit as we know it. The paycheck cashing places and moneylenders make it big in those places. So the issue is there, it just takes shape differently. Debt is not as widely available.
Javier Espinosa, our new GTP Church Ambassador from Costa Rica recently shared a quote with me along these lines. Javier wrote, *We are born without bringing anything, we die without carrying anything… and in the middle of the interval between life and death, we fight for what we did not bring and will NOT take with us…*
We not only make poor decisions. We fight to keep what God intended us to enjoy and share. So what decisions will you make in the short time you have on this earth to maximize your impact?
Regardless of your past, I pray that you decide today to live within your means so you are agile and free from slavery to debt and able to follow God with margin to live, give, serve, and love generously.
Sound too good to be true? If you are saddled with debt, seek out Travis (contact info above) and check out his resources. He can help you. And keep reading as we will explore more info on this topic over the next week.