Director’s Notes: Money and Addiction

Money and addiction are intertwined. Here are just a few examples:

• Alcohol advertising often tries to associate its product with a sophisticated and wealthy lifestyle.

• Drug dealing is a business based on greed and the acquisition of money at any cost

• Money is often a trigger to use substances

So it makes sense that my friend Jason Paltzer proposed that Resilient Recovery Ministries partner with him to conduct Christian financial literacy classes at local rehabs.

The idea was met with some anxiety.

I remember when we proposed the classes to the first rehab, a woman’s house. The residents voiced some concerns:

• Who are these people going to be?

• Can’t you just give the class, we already know you

• Are these going to be “normies”? (Normies=people with no addictions or mental illness)

Three women from CrossWalk church volunteered to be trained to facilitate the program—and they had their own concerns.

• Is the neighborhood safe?

• Will the residents reject us as irrelevant or not street-wise?

• Will they like us and the program or find us boring?

Despite the concerns and misgivings, we decided to be empiricists and simply try the experiment.

The results were genuinely surprising. Residents opened up about their financial situations, shared their financial mistakes, and were willing to learn new, more God-pleasing ways to manage money.

I attended the class with the women but did not facilitate. I have many great memories from this experience.

• The woman who pushed forward to leave her job at a dollar store to get a better-paying job at a hospital

• The flurry of running and laughing in a game where residents competed to get the most ideas about saving money up on a flip chart before the timer chimed.

• The young man who was so proud of having earned a visit to his daughter by following the rules set out for him by DCS and probation

• The stunned faces of residents as they calculated their yearly cigarette expenditures

• The residents who were incredibly gracious, sharing food and drinks with the facilitators—even sending home grocery bags full of food for the facilitator’s families.

• The text message group of the facilitators where they would update each other on the progress of the residents and share prayers for the residents.

Jason Paltzer, the facilitators, and I will be meeting in a few weeks to debrief and make a note of the learnings that arose from this experience. I look forward to hearing their insights and memories.