Paying Off Our College Debt

But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 1 Chronicles 21:24

Early in our marriage, as my wife and I first combined our paychecks, we began working on our collective debt. We both brought some school loans and vehicle debt into the marriage, and so, we immediately began working on those liabilities. Though we didn’t gain anything tangible by erasing our debt, we truly appreciated its absence once it was gone. We worked hard, pinched pennies, saved, and sacrificed to get something and so, when we finally got it, we genuinely valued it.

In contrast, we had a piece of home décor gifted to us a couple of years ago that was worth a similar amount of money as the aforementioned debt. The giver of this thing didn’t really value it though and neither did we. We didn’t work for it, nor did we seek it out. It was certainly a generous gift, but we made no sacrifice to get it and so we’ve never truly valued it.

We usually don’t value that which cost us nothing and anything in life worth having, often costs us significantly. This is the lesson of today’s passage in which King David prepared to sacrifice a burnt offering to God. In the story, a man named Ornan was threshing wheat when his work was interrupted by the appearance of an angel of destruction. God stayed the angel’s hand, relented of his wrath, and commanded David to build an altar at the site. King David approached Ornan, who tried to give the land to David, but David refused, insisting on paying full price for the land. David knew that accepting the land for nothing would be the same as pretending to make a sacrifice, which would be far worse than making no sacrifice at all.

What’s the lesson for me? I frequently go to God, praying that he does something miraculous for me and he often responds by asking that I put in some work. I don’t want to make any sacrifice though. I just want God to make me magically dislike donuts, instead of putting in the hard work required to get back in shape. I want something for nothing. Those things in life worth having though often require hard work and sacrifice. So, God asks that I commit to doing the work. If I truly value a thing, then I’ll do whatever it takes to obtain it, and if I refuse to make any sacrifice, then I’m simply never going to get there. I don’t often get something for nothing, and that which is truly valuable, usually requires significant sacrifice.