563 Celebrating Jesus …With Deficit Spending
Americans are angry about out-of-control spending by the federal government and they said so loud and clear in last month’s mid-term election. As the classic movie line says: “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” …unless, of course, it is our personal budget.
A friend of mine voted to “remove the big-government tax and spenders” from office in November while at the same time he fell another month behind on his mortgage and ran his credit card debt over $25,000.
My friend is far from alone in this double standard. Despite the nasty inversion cloud of economic uncertainty and high unemployment that continues to hang over American, per capita retail sales have returned to pre-recession levels. In fact, if you don’t count automobile sales, Americans’ total spending on goods and services is now higher than in the fall of 2008!
While it is true that Americans are now saving 5.7 percent of their disposable income (up from 0.8 in 2005) that is already down from 7.6 percent in early 2009 and embarrassingly below the 10 percent or more that our European and Asian counterparts save. Despite what we say or how we vote, most of us don’t control our budget much better than our government does.
Always the optimist, I thought for sure we would change back in December 2008. I envisioned saving, simplicity and delayed gratification becoming vogue again like the Ford Mustang, gardening, and long sideburns. But apparently savings accounts and buying with cash instead of credit will remain as rare as the rotary phone and the leisure suit. No wonder retailers expect this to be a busy holiday shopping season - which brings up another ironic double standard.
To celebrate the birth of Jesus by spending money you don’t have makes about as much since as celebrating electricity by sticking a bread knife in a toaster. Remembering Jesus’ birth by ignoring his teachings is like the federal government trying to spend its way out of debt. Let me recount one fascinating exchange Jesus had with some religious folks:
“If you’re honest in small things, you’ll be honest in big things. If you’re a crook in small things, you’ll be a crook in big things. If you’re not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store? No worker can serve two bosses: He’ll either hate the first and love the second or adore the first and despise the second. You can’t serve both God and the Bank.”
“When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: ‘You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance’” (Luke 16:10-18).
We don’t like to associate ourselves with those scoundrel Pharisees, but if the shoe fits… What are we Americans if not a “money-obsessed bunch?” Case in point, going deeper in debt to honor Jesus.
Perhaps this Christmas we’d honor Jesus more if we spent less. If we’re having trouble doing that let’s ask ourselves the questions Jesus raised. Are we really just trying to make ourselves look good in front of others? If so, what’s our true inner motivation that God knows, but we don’t? Unwrapping the answers to those questions might be the best Christmas present of all.
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