Debt and Rest, disconnected and yet not

Two topics on my mind tonight: Debt and Rest

Debt
I feel I may have come across heavy-handed in yesterday’s post about the mall. Just for the record, I want to say I have much sympathy for folks in debt. I have walked the long road of debt reduction as I helped a friend replace shopping addiction with better financial wisdom and habits as she simultaneously went through a major career “downsizing.” What I was feeling at the mall yesterday is irritation towards our consumer-oriented culture. There is no easy target in that but instead a dynamic, gigantic, invasive, seemingly untetherable organism involving individuals, creditors, marketing firms, supply-and-demand economics, free trade, and no doubt a host of things I’ve never considered. I consider myself pro-capitalism, but something is most definitely out-of-whack. Ultimately, I think the individual must be responsible at the end of the day and must acknowledge their own reckless financial habits. They also must discover what is at the root, what is lacking in their soul. It wouldn't hurt to have a few more prophets in the land decrying the state of things and articulating solutions, either. For now, I just ask people to consider why they are shopping. I ask them to look to replace a habit of over-spending with personal goals that can bring deep satisfaction, such as developing a hobby (preferably a cheap hobby!). Writing blogs comes to mind….

Rest
Sundays have evolved over the years into a day I savor. It has taken many years to slowly appreciate the purpose that the Lord had in assigning a day of rest. That no doubt has much to do with matter of aging! Responsibilities for DH and I have increased to the point that we really feel it when we don’t slow down once each week. If only our young children did, too! (I think there must be creative, joyful ways to instill a discipline of rest in our children, something I will be meditating on in months to come.)

The life of our church has absorbed the discipline of keeping the Sabbath rest to perhaps its greatest degree yet, and that fills me with thanksgiving. There is less running off to restaurants and more assembling in potluck dinners after service and in homes. We still have a ways to go, and it will never match my idea of “perfect.” I for one often cannot share that day with any others except my family as my introverted nature needs time alone (and that’s a rare commodity in a family of six.) We also are making progress through a delightful family devotional to which my children are responding positively. There’s also usually some important thing for Monday that gets neglected if I’m out visiting Sunday evenings.

Another reason I see for keeping things simple on the Sabbath is this, and I expect it will seem very weird to most everyone: I believe in building a life around my ideals, and that includes eating from local farmers and cooking food from scratch. In my ideal society, almost all of our food would come from local farmers who farmed in an organic, sustainable way. If that were true then there would have to be a lot of small farms. And if there were a lot of farms, then there would be a lot of animals that need regular care several times a day, and a much larger percentage of households would be involved in food production. I make decisions today based on where I want to be in the future. I want to be involved somehow, hands-on, in sustainable agriculture down the road and to include my children and grandchildren. So today I take pleasure in baby steps, which include patronizing farmer’s markets, and caring for our dog, cat and two aquariums (and hopefully livestock in future). It also means paying close attention to my garden six months a year (still working on the early and late months in that spectrum). I will do this regardless of how the rest of society behaves.

So, I love a day of rest, and I love that I have a church family to share it with, even though it is often “in spirit” only. That there are many others in the world doing the same is a source of peace to me tonight.

Hmmm, it occurs to me there are many connections between the topics of Debt and Rest. I hope to explore that in future!

God be with ye.