“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.”Proverbs 22:7 (HCSB)Have you ever visited the web page www.usdebtclock.org? I’ll warn you, it willmake your head spin. But you will literally be able to see runaway debt and inthe process find out that the federal debt is approaching 15 trillion dollars. Nexttime you walk by the church’s nursery and poke your nose in to look at the babiesrealize that their share of the just the national debt (that’s not counting state andlocal debts) is almost $49,000 a piece.There is more, however, according to www.money-zine.com the consumer debtof Americans spread out over every man woman and child in the US amounts to$7,800, and that’s not counting any real estate debts or all the borrowing thatgoes on between people. I don’t know about you, but that’s not just a mountainof debt, that’s astronomical, crazy debt. That’s a train going in the entirely wrongdirection; it’s going to run out of track.As a culture we have cultivated a debt mentality, somewhere, sometime, andsomehow convincing ourselves that debt is the way to go, a good thing, anecessary thing, a great way to enhance your credit score. The stress of debt, theburden of debt, the limitations of debt, the hole debt keeps you in, it’s all good,the stuff of real life and happiness. Don’t ask yourself, “Can I afford that?” silly,just ask yourself, “Can I afford the payments?” You can have it now and pay later,and if somehow you can’t you can always default and leave someone else holdingthe bag.Besides praying for and electing fiscally responsible government leaders (theymight be rare, but they do exist) you and I can’t do much more as to governmentdebt, but we can decide to act responsibly our own selves. A pile of debt can’thelp you in a recession or depression, but savings can. A fancy car that got repoedbecause you can’t make the payments won’t help you to look for work, but a paidfor clunker will. None of the cool gadgets, tropical vacations, fancy dinners, etc.will pay the electric bill, but money wisely set apart in anticipation of the cold,hard season will. “The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their foodin the summer;” Proverbs 30:25 (NASB).A debt mentality gambles on the future and wastes in the present, sound wisdomprepares for the future by being diligent and disciplined in the present. There isno freedom in debt, it becomes ever more constricting, it really does enslave. “Asimple life in the Fear-of-GOD is better than a rich life with a ton ofheadaches,” Proverbs 15:16 (MSG), especially if you are making payments onyour rich life. Above all though, debt limits our ability to be givers, to be generous,to do good, to be Christlike. Time to decide which train to be on.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor HansPS. If you need help getting off the debt train, begin with giving yourself to Godand learning his ways, I can help with that. For specific financial wisdom and toolscheck out www.daveramsey.com or www.crown.org.