Economists vs. God

As many of you may have heard, I was recently the victim of credit card fraud.  Actually, it was my check card, not a credit card.  And the perpetrators managed to get over $5000 before the bank turned the card off (because the account was overdrawn, not because they thought it was fraud).  Thankfully, it appears that the bank is going to cover the loses, it just takes a little time to get everything straight.

 

Obviously, this was a disturbing occurrence to my wife and I.  It also lead us to prayerfully reconsider our financial status and our daily life.  But it has also led us to an interesting thought.

 

Since we started working, my wife and I have been contributing regularly to our 401k retirement plans.  We already have a pretty nice amount of money saved in these plans (more than some people have to retire on in total).  However, we also have debt.  If you include my wife's student loans, we have a good bit of debt.

 

This leads to our current economic conundrum.  Should we be carrying 401k's for retirement while also carrying debt.  I think that most economists would say "Yes".  The 401k is an important tool for preparing for the time when we (hopefully) get to stop working every day.  We should reduce the debt, which we have been working on, but should still be trying to save some for the future.

 

But the Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow, that God will take care of us, much as he takes care of the sparrow or the flowers in the field.  And the Bible also tells us to eschew debt, as it enslaves us to something other than God's will. 

 

So, we are prayerfully considering using our 401k's to reduce our debt instead of saving for the future.  Not that we won't save ever.  We will continue to try and save.  However, by reducing our current debt load, we would be freeing ourselves to be more flexible and follow God more closely.

 

So, what do you think?  Are we considering something that is wise, or something that is foolish.  And if the answer is "foolish", is it foolish to the world, but exactly what God would have us do, since He warns us that God's ways appear foolish to those who do not know him?

 

As always, your feedback is welcome!

 

In God's Love,

JAy.