Free Agent

OK, so the term “free agent” might seem to contradict the biblical view. Or does it? What do we mean a free agent? Let’s start with the typical American family. The father (and often mother) works 40+ hours per week to earn a living so they can provide for their children. In this providing they are often shaken by the tides of corporate America - downsizings, mergers, moves, pay cuts, pay raises, promotions, travel, etc. Parents often miss much of their kids growing up while they are working to buy better homes, cars, and toys to “provide for their children.” When better homes and cars come from promotions and blessings of hard work, the demands get greater. The new jobs are more demanding of the parent’s time. They are now in a better neighborhood, with even hirer standards for the automobile your drive, how the yard is kept, and the family toys. The struggle to keep up with the Jones’s becomes more intense as you compare your house to others. You know it is not biblical, but is seems natural.

Now examine the typical parents goal – “to raise their children so they can get into college, get a good job, and do the same.” Why? Does this system seem crazy? So by "free agent" we mean someone who is “free” to live the life they wish to lead – and in our case we mean a biblical life. Caught in the fast lane of the world biblical principles of family, debt, finances, coveting, and marriage can go out the window over time. Many friends of mine who work very hard are now looking at their lives and wondering where they went wrong with their kids. Fact is, they are successful – in today’s standard – but their families are often destroyed.

How do you accomplish being a free agent? First, work and income is needed. We hardly suggest you can do without. Work is also biblical, and doing good work as if working for the Lord is straight out of scripture. So whatever you do (Col 3:23) work as if you are working for the Lord. Second, remember that we all have the same amount of time in a week. We must decide how to earn money with this time. For most of us we decide to sell our time and talents to others in exchange for money. If you chose this approach you can decide to sell your time to one customer or many. Having one customer is the equivalent of having a full time job. There are many benefits to of a regular full time job, and this is the normal advice of parents – get a good job. But there are some dangers. With only one customer, when that customers business goes sour so does yours. People who are self-employed often look at life as if they have many customers, or many bosses. This way when one business has a bad month the others can sustain you.

Our point here is not to convince you (or your children) to be self-employed, but to realize that you, and your children, will make a choice. Both have risks and rewards – but in both you are “free agents.” You freely decide which choice to make and how to manage the risks involved. It you go to work for one employer, you should handle your families’ finances as if you could lose your job tomorrow and not be able to gain another for six months. (By creating a six month emergency fund in a savings account) This also helps when the employer begins to encroach on issues you feel strongly about, such as heavy travel or asking you to do things that are dishonest – which happens more often than most of us want to admit. Then you can do the right thing without throwing your family into a crisis. Most who are self employed understand the need to do this provisioning for the unknown. In either case, we strongly recommend both every member in the family go through a Crown Financial Ministries study or Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. This is some of the best material we have seen for teaching biblical financial concepts.