GO TO THE ANT, YOU SLUGGARD!

PART IV

  

 ⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise! ⁷It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, ⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”  Ants are amazing little creatures. They alert others to danger, they lead other’s to food. They work cooperatively without a commander or ruler. They ensure survival of their species. They prepare for the winter and the unexpected. 

I watched a video about ants in the Amazon that created a lifeboat during the flood season to protect their queen and larvae. The entire colony joins together (like the skydivers link arms in the sky)and floats across the water while keeping the queen and larvae on top of their raft and out of the water until they reach an area of dry land.

 Underneath, the 'raft' are more opportunities for destruction (fish) that slowly pick away at the ants. Without a plan this could potentially lead to disaster. But they have a plan: it is to keep moving the queen and the larvae to dry areas on the ‘raft’.  I don’t know about you but I want to be wise like the ant. I want to tell everyone about the money strategies I am learning and how credit is not necessary for survival. I want to lead others to the One who is the source of all my needs. I want to prepare for the emergent and non-emergent needs. It will be hard; it will be tough; it will require determination, but it can be done.  I want to safeguard my children from the ‘snares’ of this world and I want them to know it a lot sooner than I did. It’s never too late; but sooner is always better than later. 
Now ask yourself, “9How long will you lie there, you sluggard?” How long do you plan to be idle or inactive about your circumstances? Do you enjoy being the borrower and not the lender? Do you want to reverse this? “When will you get up from your sleep?” When will you stop living thoughtlessly? When will you consider the true cost of borrowed money? Can you imagine what you could do if you did not owe Visa, MasterCard, GMAC, your mortgage company? Take a few minutes and imagine all the possibilities you could experience in your life if you were debt free. How much could you give to fund the food pantry? How cool would it be to pay a single parents electric bill for a year without them knowing you did it? How much easier would it be to give to the building fund at church if you didn’t have to worry about paying your mortgage? The possibilities are endless. But you have to see yourself actually doing it in order to run with gazelle intensity to get there.

                “10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and ¹¹poverty will come on you like an armed man.” A little carelessness and negligence along with lack of desire to make a change in your circumstances will cause you to have an insufficient supply of your wants and needs. It will feel as if you were robbed at gunpoint. I have been careless in my use of credit cards, I will admit, and negligent in being disciplined not to use them. I have not always had the desire to get out of debt. I believed, as much of society has, that debt was necessary to improve your credit score. As Dave points out, those in marketing have done an excellent job in making us believe we even need a credit score. You don’t need a credit score if you are paying cash. (That is a totally new concept for me.)And if you have never been robbed, all I can say is ‘you don’t want to be’! It’s frightening, you’re not sure if you are going to survive, it’s something you will never forget and will forever change the way you see circumstances that led you to being robbed. It’s something you never want to experience again. I don’t know about you, but I would love to experience the freedom of being debt-free and the feeling of not being held at gunpoint as a result of debt.

 As the creditors are slowly paid off, I will keep you updated. I'm pretty excited about knocking them off one-by-one.

GAZELLE INTENSITY

PART III

"Like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,” A gazelle is swift and can run up to 40 mph. The cheetah is the gazelle’s biggest enemy and can run up to 60 mph. Although the cheetah can outrun the gazelle, Dave reiterates a report from Discovery Channel informing viewers that the cheetah catches the gazelle only 1 in 19 attempts. Why is this? The gazelle must outwit the cheetah with swift & cunning movements, just as we should with credit. The gazelle is determined to live; we should be determined to survive on what we have not on what we borrow. As Dave says, we must run from debt with “gazelle intensity”. And that is what I am doing!

 

"Like a bird from the snare of the fowler. “ First of all the snare had to be attractive to the bird or it would have kept flying and never gone toward it. Aren’t modern day marketers efficient in making the’ snare’ attractive to us: “90 days same as cash”; “an extra 10% off if you apply for this card”, etc.?

Once entrapped, the bird will fight with intensity to be free and it will take vigor & strength to escape. Shouldn’t we fight with intensity, vigor and strength to escape bondage to our ‘neighbors’? I found a sermon by Rev. C.H. Spurgeon delivered in 1857 that had thought-provoking assumptions concerning the ‘snare'.

"Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us from snares. I doubt not, many of you have been saved from your ruins by your sorrows, your grief, your troubles, your woes, your losses, and your crosses. All of these have been the breaking of the net that set you free from the snare of the fowler…God delivers his people from the snares of the fowler, by giving them the spirit of prayer as well as the spirit of courage, so they will call upon the Lord in that day of trouble and he (will) deliver them…God will restore thee; return and God will have mercy on you. God will deliver you so you may start afresh in the ways of righteousness, serve God with diligence.”

Isn’t it interesting that words stated in 1857 are still applicable today?



LET'S DO THIS!

PART II 

Next “³ then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: ‘Then’: at that time; the time when you have found yourself controlled by another’s burdens, by obligations you have made; the time when you look at your bills and ask ‘what was I thinking’; the time when you have said ‘ENOUGH! NO MORE! SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!’ “do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands”: in other words, I am going to tell you exactly what you have to do to liberate yourself from the imprisonment you have placed yourself in; to free you from your burdens. (First I will give the steps; then I will discuss them.

1. Apologize to your ‘neighbor’.

2. With urgency, present you plans to resolve the burden.

3. Stay focused on correcting the situation.

4. Free yourself from the 0bligation.

     a. 'Gazelle intensity’ as Dave Ramsey’s states.

     b. The bird.

5. Learn from the ant.

6. Ask yourself two questions:

     a. How long do I plan to be idle or inactive about my circumstances?

     b. When will I stop living thoughtlessly?



“Go & humble yourself!” To be humble you must not be proud, arrogant, or assuming. You must be lowly, weak, modest, submissive or apologetic.  For me this meant writing a letter to my creditors apologizing for using their money. This may not be the case for you, but it was for me. “Press your plea with your neighbor’s”: To ‘press’ is to move with urgency. Once I made the decision I was getting out of debt, I quickly devised a plan and not only did I apologize to my creditors, I also presented them with a plan on how I planned to repay them. Developing a plan will require some forethought and should be realistic.

 
 
^4”Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids”. Do not be inattentive or unconcerned with your obligations. Do not be negligent in fulfilling your word. Stays focused and do whatever it takes to reinstate your faith in yourself. Get busy freeing yourself! Get a second job! Sale some stuff….you know you have too much junk anyway! Have a yard sale! Conquer that mountain! 

 ^“5 Free yourself” no longer be restrained. Then we are given two examples to learn and watch from: the gazelle and the bird. What can these two animals teach us about how NOT to be restrained or confined to others?

 

Warning...warning...you are not going to like this.

WARNING: THIS WILL BE A LITTLE MINI-SERIES POSTED OVER SEVERAL DAYS. IT HAS BEEN A THREE DAY STUDY FOR ME, SO IF IT TOOK ME THAT LONG, I SHOULDN'T THROW IT AT YOU ALL AT ONCE. HOPE IT HELPS SOMEONE.

Part I

Jamie & I started Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. I’m telling you this stuff SHOULD be taught in high schools. How drastically different our lives could have been had we understood at a younger age the principles he teaches. He makes reference to Proverbs 6: 1-11 and I wanted to dig a little deeper in it. So here is the passage:

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, ²if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, ³ then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: go & humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor’s! ⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. ⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise! ⁷It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, ⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. ⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? ¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and ¹¹poverty will come on you like an armed man.

My bible titles this passage “Warning against laziness”; I think it should be titled “Warning against debt!” and my interpretation will explain why. So let’s dig in.

 “If you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another”: Security is anything deposited or given as assurance of the fulfillment of an obligation that makes you bound to another’s financial burdens. This can be in the form of money, your signature, a handshake or even just your ‘word’.  This could be cosigning a home or car loan for your children or signing an agreement for a credit card. “Your neighbor” is any fellow human: friends, family, creditors, banks, etc. So rather you are agreeing to cover someone else should they default on a loan or you are agreeing to pay creditor’s money your borrowed to buy the car you couldn't afford to pay for with cash, you have placed yourself in a position to be bound to another’s financial burdens. Not only have you bound yourself to them, you have agreed to keep your “pledge” according to the terms you “shook on”.

Verse 2: “²if you have been trapped by what you said”: to be trapped is to be in an undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult. Have you ever been upside down on a car loan? Have you ever used a credit card with 21% interest and spent three years paying off $300? Have you cosigned for someone that defaulted and you were left paying the bill? Have you ever …(you fill in the blank)? I’m sure we all have our own personal situation that we can use as reference to this verse. “Ensnared by the words of your mouth”: to be ensnared is to give someone else power over you. That is exactly what we do when we buy things on credit. This makes me think of the ‘payday’ loans. I have personally never used them, but Jamie & I paused a commercial once to read the fine print they showed for about 30 seconds and the interest on the borrowed money was 300%. Yes! I meant to put two zero’s behind the three. Talk about giving someone else power over you. One more thing: have you ever noticed how payday loan companies are usually close to places such as Dollar General, or Dollar Tree? Think it is a coincidence???

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow.