The following questions and ideas have been bouncing around between my ears in the month of August. They relate to debt, time management, and the difference between contentment and satisfaction.

Debt

1. How much debt is biblically acceptable?

2. How can I purchase a house that provides myself and a future family with sufficient resources and comfort for life without financially enslaving myself for thirty years?

3. What are some ways I am financially deceiving others by living above my means?

4. Is it acceptable to spend a part-time job’s worth of time on investing money?

The period between 1945 and 2020 was, financially, a historical unicorn. In many parts of the West, men with relatively unskilled employment could earn enough in 40 hours a week to buy a decent house, buy a decent car, and put food on the plates of a wife and two children. Life was easy, by and large.

In 2020, however, this changed. Anyone with more than a cursory sociopolitical understanding knows that inflation has taxed us to death, house prices have skyrocketed, and even skilled workers cannot afford the lifestyle of their parents.

Yet many Millennials and Gen-Z-ers are either unaware of this fact, or refusing to adjust. They want the same sort of house as their parents, the same car, and the same eating-out rate — all while working for the same or less time per week.

That dream, I’m afraid to say, is dead.

If you want what your parents had (or have), you have two options. Only one is biblical:

1. Dual Income: Both husband and wife work 40 hours a week in highly skilled areas.

2. Single Income: The husband works 80 hours per week in a highly skilled area.

Younger generations seem to believe there is a third option:

3. Debt: Work normal hours and enslave yourself to debt.

But option C is not only unbiblical, it is also an illusion. It doesn’t actually work.

Think about it.

If, in an attempt to get what your parents had, you sink yourself into a mountain of debt, you still do not have what your parents had — for the simple reason that they actually had it. You, on the other hand, are just a slave to whoever loaned you the money.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)

If a young man in his mid 20s has a nice car and property, he is either in the top 0.5% of earners in the country, or he’s financially lying to you — creating the illusion of wealth by making peace with an inordinate amount of debt that (crucially) you can’t see.

Now, we like to cover up debt by using the words “mortgage” or “loan.” But let’s call it what it is: financial enslavement through debt.

Christians seek to be slaves only to Christ, and should therefore do everything in their power to remain out of debt. Just because you can get a $700k house loan doesn’t mean you should.

Time Management

1. Overcoming the sociocultural pressure to be lazy.

2. Is it actually possible to do everything I want to do in 24 hrs/day? What hobbies will I have to cut back on or quit?

3. Is managing my time down to an increment of 15 minutes sustainable, or is this just a phase?

Time for a hot-take shower thought. I believe what distinguishes a man of substance from the ordinary pleb is how well he masters the hours between 5 and 8pm. Where do those hours go? You pick up the phone for two minutes after work, and — voilá — it’s 7pm.

For over a month, I’ve been using the iOS app Structured to plan my time, which ideally means every 15-minute segment of my day is accounted for. This has not, as some would suspect, transformed me into a robot, utterly devoid of spontaneous enjoyment. Indeed, I break the schedule as often as I keep it — intentionally.

What the schedule means is the mental willpower required to decide what productive thing to do next is greatly reduced at any given moment of the day. The decision to run a 5k at 6am next Tuesday does not rely upon my feelings at the time — which generally say something along the lines of “Just 10 more minutes in bed won’t hurt.”

This strategy only works if you genuinely rest on the Lord’s Day. If you work on Sunday, you are not just being disobedient; you will also find that, sometime during the early week, your willpower has mysteriously evaporated, and you are slacking off at times when you really shouldn’t. If, on the other hand, you make a point of avoiding exertion on Sunday, you will find your willpower replenished during the week. It works like magic — almost as though God made a competent decision when he established the Sabbath.

Contentment Versus Satisfaction

1. “The most content people are the least satisfied” (Jeremiah Borroughs, rough quote).

2. Am I content with where the Lord has Kurri Kurri?

3. Am I satisfied with where the Lord has Kurri Kurri?

Since people often use the terms interchangeably, let me define them the way I intend to use them:

• Satisfaction (S): a verdict that the current state meets the standard (telos / ought / goal).

• Contentment (C): an unresentful attitude toward one’s current state.

Call these two ideas whatever you want — I’m not quibbling about words; but this represents a crucial distinction.

To see why, take the example of Kurri Kurri. I should be content with where the Lord has Kurri Kurri — because I’m a creature in the confines of time and space, and I must submit cheerfully to wherever God has placed me. But I should not be satisfied with where the Lord has Kurri Kurri — because the Lord himself is not satisfied. Kurri Kurri does not yet meet the standard of where it should be. The Lord wants Kurri Kurri to be a Christian town, and so do I.

Let me take this a step further.

I believe you cannot be content if you are satisfied. Why? Well, humour me for a moment. I’m going to get technical. (And if this sort of thing hurts you, skip it. I’ll never know, and you needn’t ever tell me.)

S(x,σ,t): “I judge 𝑥 meets standard 𝜎 at time 𝑡.” (Satisfaction)

C(x,σ,t): “I cheerfully submit to God with respect to 𝑥 at 𝑡 because I recognize 𝑥 fails 𝜎.” (Contentment)

With these definitions made, we can prove the following:

• Contentment presupposes a lack, because standard 𝜎 is not met.

• Satisfaction, on the other hand, is only possible if standard 𝜎 is met.

Therefore: on the same object and same standard at the same time, you cannot be content (C) if you are satisfied (S), and you cannot be satisfied (S) if you are content (C).

QED.

Why does this matter? Because when people confuse contentment with satisfaction, they become idle. They don’t push for change. They don’t take the next step. What they think is “contentment” is actually premature “satisfaction.”

If we want to, as William Carey famously said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God,” we cannot be satisfied with the present situation — and we must also be absolutely content in our dissatisfaction.