leveraged living

One of the realities of debt is that it permits people to acquire things they otherwise couldn't afford.  So it can elevate their standard of living considerably beyond their actual means.  One of the realities of business in a free market is that through debt companies can make profits and expand on the back of money that really isn't theirs and the fortune of these enterprises is "leveraged" by borrowed money.  Now that we are in a credit crisis, many people are no longer able to service debts that have allowed them to live in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed and many businesses are failing because those struggling consumers aren't able to buy or to borrow (while the businesses themselves also struggle to make payments against debt.  Even the banks that fashion the loans depend on making many loans while holding very little actual money in reserve.  It seems to be a system that depends on the expectation of future payments to function.  It's nice when a little money can help you go a long way until you are unable to make those necessary payments.  Sometimes I think that we live "leveraged" lives before the Lord.  We like to invest a little of our time and a little of our talents and a little of our money in Him with the expectation that He will rain down blessing something like a bank provides a huge mortgage for a small amount of cash down.  But there may be a hidden blessing as our financial lives become "deleveraged" and we relearn the value of saving and buying without debt just as there is great blessing in investing larger blocks of time, energy and money in our relationship with the Lord.  His grace is free but I suspect His favor cannot be leveraged.   Deuteronomy 30:1-5 (The Message Version) Here's what will happen. While you're out among the nations where God has dispersed you and the blessings and curses come in just the way I have set them before you, and you and your children take them seriously and come back to God, your God, and obey him with your whole heart and soul according to everything that I command you today, God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he'll have compassion on you; he'll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered.   blessings, Rob Smith http://2daysthought.blogspot.com/