9.13.10 I LIKE OLD

1. I LIKE OLD!
i am trying to live by the old saying 'make do, do without, use it up, wear it out. first of all, let me say that as we all, in all things: i have definitely not arrived. but i am well on my way to wearing ever deepening ruts into my characteristic behaviors and hardening my habits so that these eccentricities should grow ever more eccentric as i go along.

to think of a few things:
a few years ago i looked around at the fading, flaking paint, wall paper which was letting loose in the corners, the chimney sooted walls, etc. and thot (i who once dreamed grandiose dreams of putting an 8-sided cupola coming out of the roof in which i would sit, reading a book, watching the sun set and knocking out all the walls on the first floor and putting in huge windows throughout the house), you know a lot of the stuff in this house (built around 1895) is far better quality than anything i could afford to replace it with. i'm just going to leave it all 'mature' and grow old gracefully and, hopefully, never do anything to it except in situations where it's actual integrity is being threatened in the house.
i have, over the years, saved from destruction many things. when my wife did not want to live with me anymore i said, well, take everything you can possibly need or use. i'll be fine'. she, as usual, was very gracious and left me our queen-sized bed (she just told me how to correctly flip (rotate) the bed when, after 10 years, i suddenly realized that i hadn't flipped it 'lately'!) and it is still very comfortable, despite the non-flipping, even though we bought it over 36 years ago with some wedding $. she also left my bureau and the dining room table which was my parents'. she also left the diningroom table chairs and maybe an easy chair...i don't rightly remember...and a bunch of other smaller things she had no need of. oh yea, she left me more than fully equipped in the kitchen and bath with basic items. it wasn't much but it really was all i had need of. since most of the house was empty (four bedrooms, big rooms) i started watching for stuff that was left out for the trash and i have filled the house with very serviceable and rather nice looking things. i really feel rich. in fact many of the things i have picked up, i have actually found very helpful. currently i have a barn and house full of things i didn't have to buy.besides i have a raft load of good hardwood stored in the barn upper room in case i need something for fixing up.

i have recently taken to shifting the car into neutral when on downhills and since this is a hilly area i have done a lot of gliding for the last year or so. right now i am beginning to experiment with patching clothing. just did the first patch job the other day. i wear clothing until it is no longer feasible to wear. (as a result i have probably received more clothing than i will ever wear out and have begun to turn away certain items.

2. I DON'T BORROW $.
let me hasten to state that this is only my practice since my wife left some 12 (?) years ago. about that time i took all the invested $ out of the stock market. cashed in my 401k etc. and paid off the house about 11 years into a 30 year mortgage. to be fair my wife is very astute in $ affairs and taught me much.

i had to pay another mortgage off when dividing the house with my wife. she was very fair in all $ matter. (i think this was because she knew she didn't have any allowance before God to do what she did since the only allowance (not mandate!) for divorce is sexual unfaithfulness (which i was not), mt. 5.32; 19.9, the only option being for both husband and wife to live unmarried for the rest of their lives, rom. 7.2, with the goal of being reconciled, I cor. 7.10-1. remarriage is not an option to any believer in Jesus who is married to another believer in Jesus. now if i had not been a believer (but i was, at least, a professing believer and not excommunicated from the church) AND had let my wife, it would not have been the best but she would have had the ability to remarry, I cor. 7.13-28a. so, i think she was possibly feeling guilty and thus the kindness money wise. but man, we both are as guilty as hell for what we have done and continue doing in and out of our man-legalized state of marriage. we are still husband and wife in the eyes of God until we die.)

i had to pay off a third mortgage after God brought me to repentance of stealing His tithe for years. but since that time i have borrowed nothing. romans 13.8 says, 'owe no man anything'. so i do not plan to borrow any more. if the worst would happen and i owed more than i could pay i would want to sell everything i had and give that $, find the cheapest possible way to live, wear hand-me-downs, eat bread and water (or anything cheaper i could find), pay off any balance owed and just live out the rest of life hand-to-mouth on the streets. that would be my desire and if God helped me to have enough character to do that, that would be great. if not, the closest approximation thereto possible would be the goal. no borrowing though...borrowing is the broad road to financial hell. it happens when we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves unable to deny ourselves. as socrates said, the richest man is the one who needs least. and as another said, the richest man is not the one who possesses most but the one who gives most. it is truly a glory when Jesus sets us free from our own needs and demands. may Jesus completely set me free is my prayer.

i may add that my wife and i practiced, after an early correction by a friend, living by a budget and not buying anything on credit (we made and obvious exception for the house and possibly for a car, but always the goal was to pay off ASAP). we were very poor but determined at the start to start putting away .25 a week toward a house and God, with the inflation of the early 1980's and gifting my wife made it just possible to get a clunker kind of twin...all we needed to live and raise our three children in.

3. I DON'T BUY INSURANCE.

now this is a lie in my case. that is what i would like to do if trusted God enough. think of all the centuries of human existence during which the vast majority if not all of mankind had no insurance. what did they do? in the o.t. law there was provision that if someone's property was destroyed by the negligence of another then that was to be destroyed by the one responsible.