Coming to a Bookstore Near You

I was just skimming through an article in today's paper, had a few thoughts:

"Hank Stuever could have chosen any American suburb as the setting for his book about the country's consumer-driven identity and its collective Christmas myth".

He chose our very own Frisco. He stayed in a room here for seven months, and then came back 12 times in the next two years.

He says "Frisco is America with a capital A, with room-for-all growth, unabashed spending and naive optimism that this will never change."

Frisco has one of the highest concentrations of retail square-footage in the country. It's out of control really. I was sad the day the giant IKEA sign went up, right behind "Welcome to Frisco." Soon we will have snatched up every piece of farmland and turned it all into strip centers. Not a whole lot of scenery in this town.

But Hank, here's what's funny about Frisco. People really don't have any money. The needy and the "unneedy", we all look the same. I was at Frisco Family Services this week for a committee meeting (FFS is the one organization in our town that serves those with needs, runs the food pantry, etc). I felt very sad. The waiting room was full of people, no one would look anyone else in the eye. You didn't know if the person sitting next to you was there to volunteer, or waiting for their turn in the food pantry. Families who looked just like me were, and who never thought they would be having to ask for food, were there to ask for food.

But we look the same, because while we're having to ask for food, we're trying so very hard to appear to be OK by keeping up with our lifestyle. We're keeping the new car, still taking the vacation, keeping all of the electronics, and hoping the Visa has just enough left on it to cover Christmas.

Here's the other thing I wish Hank would have seen...I wish he would have stopped by some of the churches in Frisco and seen the hundreds of people spending their evenings sitting in Financial Peace classes. Some of us are tired of the debt, tired of the mindless spending, tired of wondering if we will be able to pay for college, tired of freaking out if we have to replace a car tire. We're learning to say NO, and we're learning to say YES. We're preparing for the unexpected. We're finding that financial peace changes everything...our walk with Christ, our marriage, our relationships, our businesses.

Come again Hank. I don't know what you'll find next time. Hopefully that we've stopped messing around and turned it all over to the Prince of Peace, Jesus.

My name is April Solomon and I have not been compensated by Dave Ramsey for this blog entry.