Everything is Backwards

Bankrate.com has an interesting article about how certain things we deem “needs” more likely belong in the category “wants” or even “entitlements.”

Jay McDonald writes,

A lot of us in wealthy, overspending America are either born or raised with a tremendous sense of entitlement. We say to ourselves, ‘I work hard or, I work at a job I hate — at least I should be able to have a Starbucks coffee every day or eat out for lunch.’ But of course, those are not needs, they’re wants. They’re pleasures.

A more theological treatment can be found here.

Personally, about 10 years ago, I had been buried under a pile of credit card debt that took a lot of discipline to pay for. I wish I had this perspective during those childish years of plastic swiping foolishness.

McDonald lists 12 things many Americans feel entitled to that can be a big drain on your budget.

12. The Daily Latte; this costs about 100 times the price of a home brewed variety.

11. Cable TV. This costs up to $780 per year.

10. Manicure/Pedicure.

9. Botox.

8. Bottled Water. This is one of the funniest scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Honestly, planet earth’s most abundant resource is bottled and sold for more than the cost of a soft drink. Buy a Brita filter.

7. Second Car.

6. Cell Phone. This is a tough one, because certain professions require constant contact. But a teenager? No way.

5. Lawn Service.

4. Clothes (excessive)

3. Private School

2. Childhood parties

1. Pet Grooming.

This is just a start, but most American middle class people could probably find several places to trim the budget and be more frugal. I know I could.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. He knows a couple who is about to get married and who has a debt burden from college that exceeds $100,000 between the two of them.

That’s a bad place to start a marriage.

Are these Ivy League graduates or med school students? No. They’re graduating from Cedarville with degrees in education and English. To put it in perspective, my first home in Louisville cost my wife and I less than $100,000 and we mortgaged that amount for 30 years. Our monthly payment was around $850 per month. This makes perfect sense when you’re purchasing an asset that appreciates in value  over time, like a home. But that is a crazy amount to pay for degrees in education and English from a small Bible college.

With this kind of sticker price, is this worth it? Most people go to college because it’s what you do in order to secure a decent job and better lifestyle in the future. College is supposed to do two things. First, it is supposed to educate and train you to contribute to society in a particular field (prepare you for a vocation) and second to indirectly recommend you to potential employers by awarding you a degree.

If employment does not await the graduate with sufficient income to offset the debt burden, then the college education becomes an obscenely expensive venture that will not propel a person’s career.

The Bible says that “the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov 22:7). College is supposed to lead to a good career. A good career is supposed to produce freedom and financial independence. This freedom can then, in turn, be used to serve God and the financial affluence given to advance Kingdom causes.

But when colleges are charging $100,000 for degrees that lead to careers that pay in the $30,000 price range, the student has enslaved himself to a life of financial slavery.

If every Christian is called to be generous with their resources, how much should we give? To what extent should we sacrifice?

I am reading Tim Keller’s book Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road and he offers a helpful principle. “Be sure that your giving cuts into your own lifestyle so that the burden of the needy falls on you.” He is essentially arguing that if your giving habits do not alter your lifestyle in someway, you aren’t giving enough yet. You should give until you feel pinched.

He also quotes another book by Thomas Gouge, who said that “the poor have a right unto part of thine estate.” God supplies some of us with abundance so that we can steward it properly by giving to meet others needs. Gouge says that the poor man’s bread rots in my cupboard, the poor man’s clothes hangs useless in my closet, and the poor man’s gold rusts in my treasure chest.

What dollar amount out of your monthly income causes you to feel squeezed?

This would need to be determined by each person’s conscience, according to Keller. Are we squeezed when it forces fewer meals out in restaurants? Are we squeezed when we buy a higher mileage used car instead of a new car?

This is convicting for me, because I can force myself to squeeze when OPEC and the Saudi’s want more oil money to waste in Dubai by charging me $4 a gallon for gas, but did I squeeze myself enough for my poor neighbors down the street?

What is the guiding principle when considering wealth? Contentment. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 6:

⁶ Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

My wife and I are planning a move to Cincinnati to plant a church this summer. As we survey the various housing options available, it creates quite a stir in our hearts concerning “needs” and “wants.” All people agree on certain needs: food, clothing, shelter, etc., but there are other things that we may call “needs” that quite certainly belong in the category of “wants,” such as a house with a garage, 3 bedrooms, central heating and cooling, and so on.

Abraham Maslow, a humanistic psychologist, summarizes in a chart a “hierarchy of needs” which every human being has. As the lower needs are met, the person is then freed to pursue the higher level needs. A starving person, for example, is not concerned with self-actualization because his physiological needs have not yet been met.

Maslow is no friend to Christianity, but his hierarchy is helpful in identifying what are the “felt needs” of human beings. While these are not derived from Scripture, they can be instructive.

Christ came to meet the all the needs we experience as humans, from the deepest needs to the most basic needs for food and shelter. What we see in the text of I Timothy how God cares for the whole person: Paul urges Timothy to “command and teach these things (4:11)” and to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching (4:13),” but he also gives lengthy instruction regarding the care of widows and the general attitude Christians should have about money.

Essentially, Paul’s teaching is that the body of Christ is a further incarnation of Jesus; everyone looks to Jesus for his or her ultimate needs while looking to one another for assistance in meeting our lower needs. This can be seen also in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done” (higher needs to bring about God’s kingdom on earth) as well as “give us this day our daily bread” (lower needs for food and clothing).

How, then, should we view money? I humbly offer this:

1. God is the provider of needs, we are stewards of his gifts. Sure, you may have earned the paycheck to buy bread, but God gave you a mind to think and hands to work. He has enabled you to provide for yourself.

Paul says this in I Tim 6:17-19

¹⁷ As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, ¹⁹ thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

2. Contentment. There are always bigger and better things than the things we currently have. Strive to be content with what we have.

3. Recognize that the majority of your “needs” better qualify as “wants.” That doesn’t make it wrong to desire them or buy them, but we are being deceived if we think we “need” a new car when our 1998 model runs just fine. A person “needs” a car when his own car is no longer dependable and he can’t get to work otherwise. With this attitude in mind, we can have more clarity when claiming the Scripture’s promises that God will always supply or needs in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19).

4. Recognize that our highest needs are only fulfilled by Christ. It is an easy temptation to think that “like would be so much easier if I only had…” This is dangerous because it entrusts to material things a power than only Christ has.

These ideas are all interrelated but the common thread is the same: Godliness with contentment is great gain.