03/09/2024
BEING BROKE IS EXPENSIVE
I have lived in poverty and prosperity. I have lived without money and I have lived with it. No doubt, life is easier with it. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. However, money alone is not what makes anyone happy, healthy, or wealthy. In fact, “having” is worthless. Only “giving” brings value. I believe God will give more *through* you than *to* you when you have the heart and discipline for it. “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
BROKE AIN’T ALWAYS POOR
Jerry Clower once exclaimed “Growing up, the President of the United States said he was declaring War on Poverty—I was certain my family would have to come out with our hands up.” lol. I understand Mr. Clower’s sentiment perfectly.
For a while, while growing up, I thought we were poor.
I was wrong.
My parents always worked, and they put food on the table. But, like a lot of families, money was made in the factory and it wasn’t much. My parents lived pay-check to pay-check and sometimes there was more month left than money.
I imagine lots of people would’ve called us poor. I once asked my mom why we were so poor and I’ll never forget what she said. “Son, we aren’t poor, we’re broke, but we aren’t poor. As long as we have each other and we love each other, we will never be poor. We might struggle. We might not have money, but we aren’t poor.”
So long as I live, I will never forget that lesson.
It’s true too.
There are plenty of people who never had the “riches” I had growing up. The wealth of a safe home, a loving family, and two parents who sacrificed for their children. That’s living it up! Of course, Robin Leach did not host a show called “Lifestyles of the Obscure & Loving” lol.
I didn’t always understand it, but mom was right; we might’ve been “broke as a joke”, but we were not poor. Being broke is not fun, but it’s better than being poor. Nevertheless, being broke can be rather expensive.
Everything cost more when you’re broke. That’s a life-lesson I learned from my Dad as a young teenager—a lesson I’ll always be grateful for.
RICH KID SHOES?
Now days, teenagers have fallen in love with the converse shoe. Nothing really changes with a want for shoes to make you look cool or 'in'.
Ah, teenagehood. . . The moment you purchase a shoe based solely on its comfort—yeah, that’s called adulthood.
They were huge chunky high-top sneakers with a built-in inflation device, Reebok Pumps. They were the shoes every kid wanted, but only “rich kids” could afford. They were the first shoes to feature a built-in inflation device. The tongue contained a big round orange squeezy button - reminiscent, coincidentally, of a basketball - that you would press to inflate something in the base of the shoe, giving you ....well, air. I guess.
It was like strapping a blood pressure tester around each foot - you got a not-unpleasant feeling of firmness, enough to go shoot a three-pointer or something, I guess. Ha!
All my friends talked about what they’d give just to own a pair. Me too. I dreamed about those shoes. They were more than just shoes. They were status symbols. They were cool. They were also. . . untouchable. First shoes I’d ever seen behind glass—like jewelry.
They were Reebok Pump-ups and they were ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!
I had never seen a pair of shoes that cost that much before. They were “rich-kid” shoes!
MY GOLDEN TICKET?
I still can’t believe I had the audacity to ask my parents for a pair. What a selfish and immature thing to ask for. Still, looking back, it wasn’t arrogant selfishness, more like ignorant selfishness, I guess. In any case, it was definitely a selfish “ask” but I didn’t comprehend that then.
We were shopping. . . That one time a year every kid dreads—we were store-hopping for school clothes.
I remember the store associate allowing me to hold a pair of those mystical sought-after Reebok Pump-ups. While daydreaming about owning a pair, I slowly looked up at my dad. . . I was donning the eyes of a beggar. . . My dad responded firmly and quickly. . . in Spanish. . . Dad’s “No” was so much of a “NO” that he had to say my name in a foreign language—“No Way Jose”!
Daydream over.
I swallowed a lump of depression that was tightly squeezing my throat, squared my shoulders back, held my chin up, and carefully handed the shoes back to the store associate.
My dad explained “Son, those shoes are a hundred dollars and I only make four-hundred a week. I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to pay that kind of money just so you can have a new pair of shoes. We have a house payment, utility bills, and groceries to think about.”
I knew he was right. I felt bad for asking. I even felt bad for wanting, but it was the first time I ever felt like that. It was depressing. I felt like Charlie Bucket from W***y Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. With zero chance of ever owning a golden ticket!
We went back to shopping from the clearance rack; and I reconciled myself to wearing a new pair of $15 sneakers by the time we walked out.
A few minutes after leaving the store, dad stopped and said “Y’all wait a minute, what’s in this bag?”
I hadn’t noticed dad wondering away from me and Mom in the shoe store. I didn’t even notice that he was holding a big bag from the shoe-store.
Dad had quietly slipped away from me and mom and bought those shoes! I couldn’t believe it!
That day, my dad handed me a box of teenage gold. There are no words for the way it made me feel. I had the coolest pair of shoes at school!
All the guys would kneel down to press on the pump-up, including all the pretty girls. I felt like a king!
THE TRUE VALUE?
It was the perfect novelty for Gen-X teenagers. It was adolescent glory. My friends were hypnotized and envious.
Eventually some “rich kids” at school bought their own pair of pump-ups like mine, but I was the first to own a pair. Besides, I knew something they didn’t know. The pair I owned were more expensive—most of the rich kids couldn’t afford the pair I owned.
The other dads might have paid a hundred dollars too, but my dad had paid a lot more.
My dad paid a quarter of his entire paycheck for my shoes. So my shoes were a lot more valuable! I wonder how many of the “rich kids” had dads who would’ve paid that?
Did my dad waste hard-earned money on a pair of Reebok shoes? Eh; I’m not sure, but what I am sure of is this… Now that I’m a dad and grandad, I am certain, if a quarter of my paycheck could purchase an experience and a lifetime memory for any of my children or grandchildren, like the one I had, it would be totally worth it. In fact, it would be a bargain!
So looking back, I will always remember:
You can be broke, and still not be poor. Nevertheless, being broke can be expensive, but you can still thrive if you’re rich in what counts most.
Johnny Nixon
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,” Ephesians 2:4
