Poor man's diet

I've thought about this post for over a year now. I guess when you come to a point where you know you're going to be poor for a long time (perhaps your whole life), you have to make sure you live smart.

The pastor at Merge gave some great advice yesterday. He said that you should never depend on two incomes. Not because the wife is not allowed to work, but because you can't count on the changes that may happen in your life. For one, people get sick, they get injured all the time. Plans constantly change. People lose jobs, and often when you least expect it. I guess I never thought of it that way before.

And maybe it's not even just a matter of being able to live off one income, but being able to live off less than that. Is it possible that we make too much? Is it possible that we rely too much on credit--essentially on the things we don't have?

Like the SNL skit says, "Stop spending money you don't have." There are sacrifices you have to make. The things you had before, even things that didn't cost that much, gotta go. For me, that was Wendy's, which is why I loved the fact that my grandparents gave me a gift card last Christmas that lasted a long time. I mean, I can reimburse a lot of my meals through youth ministry, but I can't bank on that (haha. "bank."). I also have given up on concerts. The cool thing is though this might be for quite awhile, it might also just be for a season. Besides, I have another trick up my sleeve..

Save. Save. Save. The saying goes that a person is two paychecks away from being homeless. Now while I don't always believe that homelessness is a bad thing (Jesus had no place to rest His head), it's more of an issue when others are involved. Particularly families. Most particularly children. We should be diligent--hmm, maybe I should just end that sentence there. But we should be diligent about setting aside a certain amount that we make each month for emergency. We can't always do that, but we should be prepared to when we can. And I must clarify that I'm not talking about hoarding (no "eat, drink and be merry" sort of thing), I'm talking about preparing for those times you can't control. Or maybe even setting aside money that God might want you to give to someone else.

Is it possible that we make too much in order to give more? I think this is more than possible. To whom much is given, much is expected (though I will say I don't think this just applies to money).

Phew. I feel like I'm all over the place. Here's the beauty of being poor. You get to have fun in all sorts of ways. As of late, I've had a lot of game nights. This has included Mao, most recently Set, and Rummikub, as featured below.Game nights are great because of how interactive they are, although sometimes I will get a little too into it. Hey, at least I can admit it, right? lol. There's also the simple joys afforded (man, I'm full of them today) by a walk around the neighborhood, or reading a book, or cooking, or learning a new language, or I dunno.. playing an instrument.. I could keep going. And interestingly enough, the more I do these things, the more I want to do them because of how much rest and peace they give me.

I was reading Philippians and I noticed that the "I can do all things" verse comes after an explanation of being content in all circumstances--in having much or in having little. It's not a matter of being able to always find success in life "through Christ who strengthens me", but a matter of learning how to be cool with however much food you ate for dinner. As Mama T (as Kayanne calls her) said, "Look, the Father takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, He'll take care of you."