On Reducing a Debt

One of the very worrisome things that hangs heavily over or heads is a debt that is due⎯or overdue. Paradoxically, it is a worry if we do worry about debt, and it is another kind of worry if we don’t worry about debt.

On this question there are two extremes a man might take: One is living too much for the future⎯saving everything. The other is living too much “off” the future⎯living on expected income before it is earned. (A still further extreme is to live off income that likely never will be earned⎯which is to live off the efforts of others, sometimes even to placing a burden on those yet unborn.

Many people, through the uncertainties and unforeseen shortenings of life, incur obligations which they don’t live to pay. But what about deliberately binding the unborn with a burden of debt? What about shifting debts to the shoulders of those who had no voice in the making of them? This is a side of the subject of debt that should always seriously be considered⎯for a person who is in debt to his grandfather as well as to his grandchildren⎯a person who is in debt to the past and to the future, is indeed deeply in debt.) So much for the question of binding the unborn.

And now a moment on another side of the subject: It is true that it has come to be expected that we shall obligate ourselves somewhat for the future. Most of us would never acquire homes or much of what makes them comfortable or convenient, except for the possibility of “paying as we go.” But the point at which personal debt would seem to become a matter of very considerable concern is not so much for the things we use as we pay, but the things we have used up before we pay. This puts a mortgage on a future in which we have no equity.

And now as to an attitude toward debt: So long as we acknowledging it, and reducing it⎯keeping it current⎯there can be soundness and self-respect. But whenever we fail to feel a sense of obligation for what we owe, or whenever we’re not paying it off (or never expect to pay it off), then there is a serious deterioration of something inside.

And now to repeat in part some sentences from the past: The only way to get a load lifted is to begin to lift it. The only way to get a job done is to begin to do it. The only way to get a debt paid is to begin to pay it. There is no man whose life cannot be improved by repenting⎯ and part of all repentance is to reverse the process⎯to stop doing what we shouldn’t do, and to start doing what we should do⎯and so it is also in reducing a debt: We have to start to pay; we have to reverse the process.