Debt: a real and actual obligation – Sunday, January 17, 1960
Last week we spoke of the false philosophy of supposing that if we have made one mistake, it won’t matter much if we make one more, and of the need for reversing a wrong process if we ever want things to go the right way. There is yet this further thought on a somewhat related subject, and it has to do with debt. Debt is a burden, a worry (or should be)—that is, it should be if it is a debt past due. Debt is a real and actual obligation. It represents the use of something that actually wasn’t ours, or the use of something for which we have postponed payment. And it is a fallacy to feel that being somewhat deep in debt, it doesn’t matter very much if we go yet deeper.
Here, in a sense, is a matter of repentance, a matter of reversing the process. No one in debt is likely to get out unless he does something different from that which got him into debt. Of course, there is the unavoidable, the unexpected: the accidents, the illnesses, and other adverse events; and there is generally a disposition to be understanding of the necessary and the unavoidable. But basically, borrowing carries with it the obligation of paying back.
Either we reduce obligations or we increase obligations, and credit is given with the expectancy that the debtor will reduce the debt. And respect and confidence and sound credit come with an honest attitude toward honoring obligations. Embarrassment and discomfort and the killing of confidence and credit come with ignoring or attempting to move out from under obligations. No man is ever out of debt who always goes in deeper.
No man is ever out of debt who always promises more than he pays. In this, as in other things also, the direction in which we move matters much. And because a man may be down deep, doesn’t mean that he should go down deeper. And this, or any other, is a season to resolve not needlessly or irresponsibly to go down deeper into debt.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, January 17, 1960, 11:30 a.m., to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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January 17, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,587