I've been having some converations recently about credit cards and their use. Someone asked a frightening question recently: "If I don't have any money in the bank and I don't have a credit card, how do I buy this?" The obvious answer is, "You don't," but the scary part of that question is that the credit card seems to have been seen as the answer to buying things when you don't have money. It's not an uncommon theory at all, even within the church.

As Christians we are given resources by God alone to be used as we walk this earth. We may work to earn money, but the skills requred for our jobs comes from the way God created us - therefore He alone has enabled us to earn the money for the things we need. He has also charged us with a stewardship of these things - a responsibility for using them wisely and to execute the work that He has given us.

Using a credit card when you have run out of ready cash is not what I would consider a wise use of resources. Many people say, "But the bills are due, what do I do then? I can't live off of what I make each month - I have to use the credit card." Not to sound too harsh, but I'm not sure I buy it. Many of the people that I hear use this excuse have cable TV, lots of 'toys,' a car, a mortgage - things that if we really didn't have the money to afford, we just shouldn't have.

The Bible tells us that we should not owe anyone anything except the debt of love (Romans 13:8) - this should include our owing money on our credit cards, I think, because the stress of that money needing to be paid off can seriously affect our peace of mind and the freedom of our financial resources. Plus, we should probably look at the reasons our credit cards might be carrying a balance - is it because we place too high a value on the things of this world and wanting to keep up to the "Joneses"? May it never be. May we instead take drastic steps to avoid living the same way the world does and feeling the need to be the same as everyone else. May we rejoice in the resources with which God has blessed and entrusted us and use them as wisely as we are able, by the wisdom of God found in us.

(By the way, here is a tip for those wanting to build credit but not be governed by their credit cards: Keep a cheque ledger - those little books that come with your new cheques - and whenever you write a cheque, keep a record of it and take that amount off your bank balance. It is gone anyway, as soon as you write the cheque. Do the same with your credit card expenditures - take them off your bank balance. Then, at the end of the month, even though it looks on the ledger like your bank balance is too low to pay the credit card, the amount that you spent on the your credit cards will be sitting in your bank account, ready to pay your credit card balance to zero - this builds credit but avoids debt and interest fees.)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)


(PS - for those of you who keep thinking that my picture was way out of date, I've finally found and posted a slightly more current one.... I find it weird that people thought the first one looked so different that they would hardly recognize me; I thought it looked just like me (well, it was me). And this one is still not exactly current (last April), but check it out - my guitar is in this one, too. I promise that occassionally I don't have a guitar or some other instrument in my hands. Occassionally.... So, do you all feel better now?)