Money: Coming In and Going Out

I really do enjoy writing. I love writing blog posts and getting people’s feedback. And I know that at least some people enjoy reading my blog. =) I know my parents enjoy my blog posts, as it helps them have a small window into my life and some of the things that are going on. During this Christmas break I’m hoping to be able to spend some time writing since I won’t have all the pressures of school bearing down on me. 

My first post will be about money.

Money. Why is it so important? Why do I go to my job and spend hours and hours working just to see a little number go up on my computer screen. The reason is that money can be used to satisfy desires. Basically, any desire that you could ever have could be satisfied if you had enough money. (Every desire except for one, which also happens to be the most important one. And it also umbrellas over all the other desires not allowing any of them to be complete without it. I am of course speaking of Jesus Christ. But that is another topic for another time.) Now, desires that we have are not all necessarily wrong. It is not wrong to have a desire to eat, to sleep in a bed, to seek further education, to purchase gifts for others. Money is needed to buy all of these. So I think that it is safe to say that money can be a legitimate need.

But my point today isn't to discuss the philosophy of money and its potential for good and for evil, but rather to talk a little bit about some of my experiences with budgeting that I’ve been through recently.

A section of my budget report

Back in mid-June I decided that it was time to start building a budget for myself. The first step I took was to track my spending and earnings. I started diligently keeping all my receipts and filing them according to month. I then put together a very basic program in Access which allows me track of all my money coming in and going out. It has been very good to be able to see where all the money I am earning is going. Granted, I’m not making scads of money, but I am making a decent amount and sometimes it seems it runs out all too quickly. So, starting a budget and tracking my spending seemed like a good, responsible, grown-up thing to do, so I did it.

Examining my spending and earnings has been both a comfort and a challenge to me. It has challenged me to be very careful in my spending and only purchase things that I truly need. Thankfully my parents were very wise and taught me these principles as a child, so I am usually very good about evaluating my purchases before I make them to be sure that I can justify the item and the cost.

But also it has actually been far more of a comforting than a challenge since I have been able to see how I am spending my money and know that I am actually doing a good job at spending it wisely and not wasting it. So, when I don’t have a whole lot left over at the end of the month, it’s not that I am wasting it, it’s just that that is the stage of life I am in right now. Not saying that I can’t improve my spending at all, but as a whole, it’s going pretty well.

A chart of all my expenses

Life is expensive, and tracking my spending has helped me understand better just how expensive it can be. Just as an example, take my school life: I work 30-32 hours a week during the semester at Public Safety which gives me a decent amount per month. But of that, 75% goes directly into my school bill. Then 10% is for my tithe, and then about 6% is for vehicle expenses such as gas. That only leaves 9% of my net income for everything else such as medicine, home necessities, savings, clothing, food, gifts, etc. So, basically, 91% of my expenses are fixed and there is no way for me to cut back. That actually makes me feel better, because it’s not really that I’m wasting all my money, it’s that I’m spending most of it on actual needs. So, if Public Safety were my only source of income I really wouldn’t be able to buy anything other than the bare necessities. But thankfully God has allowed me to earn some extra money through yard work and driving to supplement my Public Safety income so that I am actually able to buy some clothes, and food, and gifts for others (which is a good thing.) But even with that extra income a significant portion still goes straight into fixed expenses, though not quite 91% (I can’t really calculate how much because my extra income can vary significantly from week to week).

But all this to say, that tracking my spending and income has really helped me understand more about finances and good stewardship. Though it is not always fun, this process of budgeting has been very beneficial to me. If you don’t already keep track of your spending in some way I suggest you start sometime soon, maybe as a new year’s resolution. It doesn’t need to be fancy, it could be as simple as saving all your receipts and reviewing them at the end of the month, but I believe that you would benefit from it. Even if you don’t change how you spend your money, I believe that it will help you appreciate the money that you do have even more. It certainly has helped me praise God for all that He has given me, and I think it would help you in the same way. Because really, every cent that we receive is a gift from God, and I can know that He has given me exactly the right amount. The philosophy of our world is designed to make us always want more, but if we step back and look at what we have already been given, as Christians, it is impossible not to turn back towards heaven and praise our Lord God for His wonderful blessing. For He is wise and generous God who will supply all our needs.

       Thanking my savior for His wonderful blessing,

                   Tim

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

~ Hebrews 13:5-6

We can be content in Christ.

Amazing Senses

Humans are born with a vast array of senses that their bodies use to function during normal day-to-day living. God has designed our bodies to work together harmoniously by utilizing all these sense at the same time. Typically, when people think about the senses that we have, they think about the five most famous or well known senses, hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. We have other senses which we don’t even think about such as themoception (the awareness of temperature), nociception (the awareness of pain), equilibrioception (the sense of balance).

These many senses that our God has given to us are absolutely amazing. When you stop to think about just what exactly is taking place every moment of every day, it is just astonishing. Think about some ordinary thing that you do all the time, and then stop to think about how your senses are actually all working together to allow you to accomplish that task.

Picture this: You are at home. Your mother just pulled out some fresh-baked brownies from the oven and sets them on the counter. You smell the sweet aroma given off by the brownies. Your mind takes that smell and then links it to past experiences and makes your tongue remember just how good those brownies tasted in the past. Because you know that they are good, you want to eat one. You reach out to take one, but before even touching the brownies or the pan, through themoception you can tell that they are too hot to grab and will hurt or even burn you if you touch them now. You sit there waiting for the brownies to cool down and when they do, you cut out a piece and pick it up. You see the perfectly colored center of the brownie and feel its soft, moist texture. You bite down on the brownie and you experience the spectacular flavor which your mind remembered and anticipated. You quickly finished the brownie, but you can feel something still on your fingers and realize it is some of the brownie. You close your eyes to savor the sweet moment while you lick the last of the brownie off of your fingers. Even though your eyes are closed and you can’t see your hand, through kinesthesia you know where your hand and fingers are, and you also know where your mouth is and are able to lick the tips of your fingers without even looking at them. As you lick the last of the brownie off your thumb you open your eyes again and reach for another one.

The example of the brownie just shows how much our senses work together without us even realizing or thinking about it. For another example, imagine that you stubbed your big toe on your right food and it hurts when you walk on it. Your body recognizes the pain (through nociception) and sends a message to the brain saying that it hurts to put pressure on that foot. The brain compensates by taking shorter, quicker steps with your right foot and slower, longer steps with your left foot, so that less time is spent with pressure on your right toe. Now you are walking with a limp and your stride is all messed up, but because your body has a sense of balance and movement it instructs your body to lean a little bit more to the left to compensate for the pressure difference, and then continues to make fine adjustments as you walk to keep you from falling down. All this is going on even while you are just walking across your bedroom.

Many more examples continue to astonish me, things as small as hearing a knock on your door. Though you may not be able to explain exactly how you know, you can tell if that knock was on your door, or on the door right across the hall. “It just sounds different.” When driving down the interstate, you can tell that you are slowly gaining on the car in front of you. The car appears bigger as you get closer to it, but since you are gaining so gradually the difference is unnoticeable, yet you still recognize that you are getting closer. You hear a glass break when it is dropped to the floor and instantly turn to the direction where the glass broke even though you didn’t see it fall or know where it was before. Your body measured the volume and time difference between your two ears and recognized that the sound was 60% louder in your right ear as opposed to your left, and also that your right ear heard the crass 3 milliseconds before your left ear. All this is taken, calculated, and acted upon in the fraction of a second it takes you to hear the crash and turn to look at the person who dropped his cup.

The more I think about it the more and more astonished I am about how truly amazing our bodies actually are. Here I have only been focusing on our senses but there are many other things about our bodies that, when examined, bring me to awe at the handiwork of our creator. Even things so mundane as our digestive system or bodily functions such as white blood cells fighting off infections are things which are spectacular to observe and understand, recognizing the master-worker behind them.

Our bodies are studied with great interest and continue to bewilder the most brilliant mind of our day. Computer scientists for example continue to study our sensory perceptions with astonishment and try to replicate them with modern robotics. They have robots today that can even walk on two legs, recognize an object, and pick it up. They have been able to do many, many things with robots and computers, but they will never be able to match the genius who formed the human body, God. We serve a Being who is genuinely worthy our all our praise.

Praising my Creator,

Tim

Isa 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.