I realized I never blogged about being debt free! I gave my testimony of what God did on my journey to becoming debt free at church, so I'm just going to copy and paste it here. Maybe it will encourage someone on their journey. (Feel free to reach out if you want to talk while you work to becoming debt free.)
Sorry there are no pictures or anything to break up the long text. :)
Money is one of those topics no one wants to discuss. It’s
personal. It makes us uncomfortable. When Pastor Nathan asked me to share about
what Christ did for me on my journey to becoming debt free, I immediately
thought--no one wants to hear about budgets and Dave Ramsey and debt snowballs.
But in reality, my journey had less to do with money and more to do with
surrendering myself to Christ.
When I started the Dave Ramsey program eight years ago, I had
never written down a budget, much less calculated how much debt I had, so I was
in complete shock when I realized I owed 59,496.03. Other than a car and a few
thousand dollars of student loans, I honestly cannot tell you what I bought. I
serve as a school librarian, so I’m guessing it was a lot of cardigans.
I began working the plan, full of optimism and determination to
make a budget, stick to it, and get out of debt. But regret over bad decisions
only gets you so far. Some months I would do well, but many months, I would
drain my savings or use my credit card.
I continued in that cycle until a year and a half ago. On a
Wednesday night, Pastor Nathan talked about reaching unreached people groups.
He said there were people who had not heard the gospel because they are in such
remote places that we’d have to build roads just to reach them. He spoke about
the money it would take to build those roads and the training for the
missionaries to share the gospel and the cost of translating Bibles into that
language.
I can’t tell you what he preached on that night because I couldn’t
quit thinking what 59,496.03 plus interest throughout the years could have done
to advance the gospel. I know God doesn’t need my money, but I had missed a
chance to join him in the work he’s doing to make the name of Jesus known around
the world.
The regret I had over bad financial choices turned to godly sorrow
that I had put stuff I can’t even remember buying above the advancement of the
gospel. I went home, got on my face in my prayer closet, and repented for not
trusting His plan for the money He had given me. I realized God’s goal wasn’t
just for me to be debt free--it was for me to completely surrender control of
my finances to him.
I had only told two people ever how much debt I had. Now, I was
sharing my monthly totals on social media with strangers. With a changed heart,
I began to make different decisions, not just with the mindset of getting out
of debt but with pleasing the Lord with my money.
I wish I could tell you that I surrendered to his lordship, and it
was easy. It was still a year and a half of hard choices, of lonely weekends,
of dying to my selfish desires. But, it was one of the most beautiful times, as
Jesus poured out His grace to me through His word and encouragement from
friends and even strangers.
On February 15th, I made my last payment to Discover, and with the
next paycheck, I paid to go on my first mission trip with NEHBC. While being
debt free feels amazing, the true blessing was Christ using the long journey to
fill my greatest need--more of him.
Throughout my journey, I kept coming back to Philippians 4:11,
where Paul wrote “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned
in whatever situation I am to be content.” Even though I hated dying to my
selfish desires, the more I surrendered to Christ, the more content I became
despite my circumstances. He is enough.
6 comments:
That's great, congrats!
Great post!
Congratulations! It's truly a big and an important achievement! Your journey has been long and intense. But you did it! I am so impressed with everything you’ve been able to do. I can only imagine the feeling and so look forward to my day!
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