I read recently on Al Hsu’s blog this post about how our economy depends on us buying things that we don’t need.  That’s sad. Really sad.

As Al said in his post, “So what happens if people only buy what they actually need? The economy collapses, because it’s based on us all buying unnecessary stuff? So sad.”

Now is about the time where many of us will be receiving our “Economic Stimulus Checks.”  To me, this is such a strange thing.

Now, I am fairly certain that this will work in some ways.  There will likely be a lot of flat screen televisions, ipods, iphones and things like this purchased with this money.  I guess that isn’t terrible.  It’s kinda like finding a roll of 20’s in the winter jacket you haven’t worn for 2 years.  A perfect opportunity to go and buy yourself something nice!

Well, in our house, we’re taking another approach. We’re paying off debt.  Phew, that sounds fun. But, I’ll be honest, the biggest thing that keeps Melanie and I from giving more and having the freedom to make a missional choice on where to live is the amount of debt we are carrying. We’ve been praying that when we  move apartments or buy a house it will be because of God calling us to a particular community or neighborhood.  We currently unable to do that because of this load of debt.

So for us, the check we’re supposed to receive in the next few days is not an economic stimulus. Its a missional stimulus.  It is going to help us continue on our way towards being more free to respond to the needs in front of us and more free to follow God’s call into the neighborhood where he calls us.

For those of you who don’t have debt, maybe there is something else you can do with it besides buying yourself something shiny.

I’m not trying to say that if you buy something shiny with the stimulus check that you aren’t a good Christian.  I just want to encourage you to think carefully about what you choose to do with it.

Personally, I say we stick it to the man and pay off debt and help out the poor.

It’s sad when doing that is considered sticking it to the man…