Christmas and Debt

Brenda brought up a good point about Christmas as an excuse to rack up credit card debt. And I think what Christmas throws into stark relief here is that a lot of people don't save their income ahead of time to be ready to buy what they can afford. Instead they spend what they don't have, planning to pay for it in the future.

In the Bible there are several warnings against charging interest to fellow Isrealites, and particularly in the Old Testament one of the marks of a righteous person seems to be that he or she refrains from charging interest or making a profit on selling food to the poor.

I think what I'm trying to get at is a way for regular people to approach debt reasonably. Is Christmas a good reason to go into debt? Or should we plan for unexpected and expected expenses so that we aren't relying on the dubious generosity of the credit card company? And on the other side, how can we step off the merry-go-round and find ways to plan ahead instead of paying behind? Save up for Christmas instead of paying the credit card bills for 3 months, or six months?

I think the Christian response to acquisitiveness is, first and foremost, gratitude for what we already have from God. Sure, there's usually a little guilt and some Protestant work ethic thrown in there (at least for me), but the basic idea I propose is: if we trust God to care for us in the future, and appreciate the ways God already cares for us now, we won't need to fill our lives with things or buy love with gifts.

Or maybe another way of putting it is: God accepts us as we are, and our personal worth has nothing to do with what we own, what we look like, or how much power we have. God's love is what is of most worth, but it can't be bought because it is already ours.