Bankrupt Teens

a Jesus thought...
"I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned." (Matthew 3:11-12)

a Godly thought...
Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemies hatred, the greater his need of love. (p133 Bonhoeffer)

a leading thought...
Like it or not, leadership is dealing with people. If you refuse to develop the necessary skills to work with people you will never be a leader. (p147 Newman)
a Dave thought...

KATE'S phone is running hot with calls from debt collectors keen to reclaim their share of the $25,000 she has borrowed but is unable — or unwilling — to pay back. Now Kate will join the more than 2000 young people a year who declare themselves bankrupt.
The 19-year-old's problems started when she borrowed $18,000 for a new Holden Barina and signed a $150-a-month mobile phone plan.
Despite having no assets and doing only casual work in a city call centre, Kate was approved for finance for both the car and phone, bills she struggled to pay from the start.
Just six months after using credit she clearly could not afford, Kate consolidated her debts with a major bank but despite early attempts to pay the $240 a fortnight owing, she quickly fell behind.
A night out drinking ended with her crashing her car into a pole, invalidating her insurance.
The prospect of being denied credit for at least seven years scares her, but she sees it as the only option.

The trend of teenage debt is at an all time high and although many just accept it and say it something we just have to learn to live with I think it is setting young people up badly for life. Teenagers not only get credit card debts, but also mobile phone bills, then we add on that HECS sometimes just because they think they need to go to Uni even if they never use the degree and they are off to a life bound by obligations to financial institutions that end up owning them.

One of the great things about my recent move to commissioned officership is it allowed me to sell my house and car and live debt free for the first time in 13 years. Some have commented and suggested it must be scary not owning anything of significance but I have actually found it very freeing to not owe anyone any money whatsoever. Maybe that verse about not having two masters is in the bible for a reason?

I still remember listening to a preach on this by Michael Collins (Canada) at ACC04 on how he chose to rent and how he really felt that God is only able to direct our lives fully when we are debt free and not bound to obligations placed on us by others. I was challenged by this sermon at the time and never forgot the words Michael spoke that day, and now it is a reality for me it makes even more sense.

Just a thought.