Less is More

We start out in hope wanting to build a life and the struggles give us fond memories. Over time we build our tastes according to the supply we have. Those who are enjoying prosperity should do so. But there is always a risk that we should keep in mind. There are those who have experienced working long hours all their lives with a time of success, seen the finish line only to have it all taken away. While in a good place we tend to be delusional and assume that the supply will always be there. Just picture a cut off supply due to a war or collapse of some kind. Even legislation can wipe out some people’s dreams. Dream cars are repossessed, the houses go in foreclosure and the savings get spent.

That is where I was five years ago. My workweek was on the road 80k miles a year with seventy to eighty hours a week. I had my dream truck, a newly built home and two lake houses in Michigan. The same people who welcomed me into their banks with VIP status for twenty years suddenly looked at me with contempt. We spent our savings and peaked out credit in hope that the environment would get better.While things were going well I pretended to know how failure would feel but in reality had no comprehension. I knew of people who killed themselves over major failures but never understood it. 

I had six crews that depended on my company for income. They understood but were just as fearful as I was. Sleepless nights were the norm with my mind calculating over and over. I went to numerous businesses that I had avoided earlier with my hat in my hand begging for a morsel of work, first for my crews and then for myself.  Here I was pushing fifty and looking to scale things back and there was nothing to fall back on. Starting over finally became the only option but that realization came after weeks of no sleep and endless calculation. But where do I go? What do I save? Is my body and mind up to a complete change? I think pride was the first thing that had to go. I was never extravagant but wanted the best of everything. Now there was no choice but live by cash or have wages garnisheed. It put a new meaning on cheapskate. I was now one out of necessity. The ideal of living with no debt was a joke.

The bankers became vultures, waiting for me to fall so they could get their morsels. My truck had to be hidden to keep it from repossession, it even though it was close to being paid off. Bankers walked into my home uninvited to look it over because they wanted to snatch it up for nothing as soon as it was foreclosed. I will never forget their smug looks and condescending attitudes as long as I live. Half of them were young people who had their expenses paid by their parents all their lives. Nowadays I am not ashamed anymore to drive an older car or to live in cheap housing. Everything I have will be well kept and satisfy me. When you experience how debt and easy income puts you under someone else’s thumb, freedom becomes more important than pride. I would rather walk in a public park a free man than have to work like a dog to travel the world. I would rather live in a house I own than have vultures circling over waiting to snatch it up at my first difficulty. I am not cheap and the time will come when I can afford more, but it won’t come through credit reports and some stranger’s smug approval.  I consider my life now far better than it was it back then. It takes less to have more. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said, “What good is it to gain the whole world yet lose your own soul.”