All the King's Horses

I will begin this post by stating that I am no financial wizard. Like most of you, at the end of the month I’m looking through the couch cushions for spare change, but in my defense diapers aren’t cheap, and I think they set the price for baby formula by the gold standard.

That said, I recently read that Puerto Rico defaulted on a $58 million dollar debt. Sure, for us mere mortals that seems like a lot of money, but when you juxtapose our national debt, which is currently weighing in at an obese $18.6 trillion, $58 million seems downright paltry, anorexic even.

Some things there is no coming back from. Some things take such a toll that try as one might to rectify their past mistakes, it is impossible. I’ve known people who abused their bodies over the course of decades in a systematic fashion with alcohol and drugs, only to try and right the ship, better themselves, and get healthier, when their livers were already shot, their lungs were black with cancer, and their hearts had swelled to the size of a cantaloupe.

Sometimes it takes a physical, other times a blood test, but something has to awaken an individual to the reality of the sad shape they’re in, in order for them to see that no matter how much you try to put it off, eventually the bill comes due for everything in this life.

We’ve been buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have for years and years now. What ought to have stirred us to wakefulness and shown us the approaching disaster only served to embolden us to more spending. Even though you can only sleep in one bed and sit in one chair and eat at one table the magnitude and sheer size of our adobes have become so mammoth that many a soul could easily convert their homes into mid-size bed and breakfasts, and still have plenty of room for themselves.

Am I judging people with big homes? Far from it. If you earned it, it’s your right to spend it however you see fit. What I do have an issue with are people who know in their heart of hearts they could never afford the mansion, but still sign the papers and get themselves into debt far exceeding what they can hope to repay, sort of like our country at this point in time.

The end result is an inevitable one. Sooner or later both the individual with the too high mortgage, as well as the nation in question begin to default on their debt, and no optimistic outlook or more printing of money can circumvent this reality.

The only thing that can be done is to kick the can down the road a ways, to put off the inevitable, but with each passing day, with every delay, the pain of it all will be that much greater when it finally comes crashing to the ground.

So what’s the point of this post? Why talk about this? Because there are many today, even within the household of faith who trust in the arm of the flesh, who trust in the system, who trust in the things they can see, and do not exercise their faith, or build up their intimacy with God. Their perceived security and the amassing of more perceived security makes them lethargic when it comes to their spiritual growth, their myopic view keeping them from seeking the fullness of relationship with God while the birds are still chirping and the sun is still shining.

Do you know God, or do you know of God? Does He know you? Are you a son or daughter, or some illegitimate offspring whom God does not acknowledge as His own? These are questions we must answer far in advance of what is now a certain collapse, questions of far greater import than how long we can manage to delay the inevitable.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.