You couldn’t have planned it if you’d tried. My mum had passed away the day before and ‘the rent man’ had failed to call. It really got to my dad. He had never owed a penny in his life. As far as he was concerned ‘debt’ was a genuine four letter word. And so he phoned the local council offices to find out what had happened. “I have never failed to pay my rent on time ever since I came to live in this house,” he told them. But they said he was not to worry. It was ‘a new rent man’ who didn’t know the area and he had failed to get to everyone that day. “You can pay next week,” they assured him. But he did worry. How could he not worry? It went against everything he had ever believed in.

And then, to his horror, just two days later, he received a letter telling him he was in arrears and threatened with possible eviction. We sorted it out of course (although my dad never did get an apology for this appalling ‘computer error.’ I guess some things are just too costly).

I thought of my dad earlier this week when I heard the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority warning of a ‘pronounced’ build up of debt especially among young people. Recent Bank of England figures clearly show that consumer debt is now approaching levels not seen since the financial crisis a decade ago whilst incredibly low interest rates make savings increasingly unattractive. And this is nothing short of a ‘generational shift’ according to the BBC’s Kamal Ahmed.

He’s right. My wife and I have never been tempted to purchase things on what was once called ‘the never-never.’ We were taught to wait until we could afford to buy things - and if we didn’t buy them it was obvious that ‘we could do without them!’

Sadly, credit is so all-too accessible and this is far from helpful given the fact that we are constantly being tempted to buy things we don’t really need and can’t really afford. And all our experience shows that for many debt is terribly addictive and destructive. But that’s the bad news. Thankfully, there is some good news too. For Jesus offers us an alternative way of life and it’s a way that leads to true contentment and complete fulfilment.

It’s for this reason, I have joined my friend Philip Bishop in establishing a new ministry which we have called ‘Generous Heart’ (you can find it at http://www.generousheart.co.uk/). We’ve done this for lots of reasons, but they are all related to our experience of God. We have discovered for example that God can provide for us in the most unexpected and amazing ways. We saw that as a family when I spent three years training for the ministry. There were five of us and we had no guaranteed income of any kind and yet we never went without anything we needed. And we’ve also come to the conclusion that happiness and contentment are very much related to our willingness to be generous. Because God loves cheerful givers. In fact, those who want to be generous never seem to lack the wherewithal to make Him happy.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]