I was freed from crippling debt. Ever since I was 18 years old (I'm 37 now), I have always been in some sort of financial debt. It was likened to a curse that would not release me. At the age of 18 I endured a medical emergency which left me in medical debt and from there on, I began college and accrued even more debt in student loans. When I started college, I only had $98 in my name and made minimum wage from there on. What prospect did I have?
Faith. I felt the weight of my debt when I finished college, a four year journey. My body would tremble with an anxiety that threatened to end me then and there during that time each year I had to renew my income-based repayment plan and lay eyes upon exorbitant balance which I owed. It started at around $60K and each year thereafter much more with the high interest piling on monthly. The figurative rug was my essential escape, that I could brush the thought of this debt away under in my feeble mind.
Even though I wasn't fully invested into Christ during these times, while adulterating to other gods being in my foremost interest, curiosity and beginning practices in 'new age' ideology, I prayed. I prayed and I prayed, and I let go.
It wouldn't be until a little more than a decade later, just at the start of this year, I was roughly $80K in financial debt from student loans and medical bills. Each year I needed to renew an income based repayment plan to stave off the payments for my student loan debt. I’ve prayed for freedom from this debt throughout the course of this decade. At the time of the year when I had to renew this payment plan, I’d be consumed with overwhelming anxiety because I’d have to look at the balance of my debt as I logged into my account to gather forms and submit the needed documents. I held nothing against my debtors and eventually I let go of any fear I had and come to peace that I may never pay off this loan. When one year, just in 2024, I heard a disembodied voice in the morning as I woke up. It spoke quickly and said something along the lines of “renew your IBR plan”. I know for sure it wasn’t a thought or something I heard in the room if that makes sense… I NEVER forget to renew this plan, but for the first time I had and I was thankful for a reminder from this voice. I renewed the plan and then a week or so later I received an email which told me my repayment plan request was rejected! This never has happened to me either. So I called their customer service department and I was told that loan payments will no longer need to be made to the educational institute that I attended and all debt from anyone that attended that school will be cleared and previous payments refunded (yikes to them). I also later received this same information from an official .gov email. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but it for certain didn’t read as any tax payer cost forgiveness in case that raises any brows there.
After that I still had what I knew to be $8K owed to my insurance after I birthed my second daughter. A conviction overcame me to ask my employer to cancel my health insurance plan altogether and so I did. Shortly after I was given a raised and thereafter reluctantly contacted that health insurer to set up a payment plan so I could start repaying the remaining balance owed. I was told by the insurer I had no remaining balance. For the first time since I was 18 years old, I had no debt.
God be praised.
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My experience was not nearly as horrific, but I'm just reminded of Kathryn Gordon's story about how she was suffering from a debilitating illness that doctors could not diagnose which was determined initially to be purely mental. Her marriage was falling apart from it and she considered suicide until she heard a loud clear voice one night that told her "your implants are making you sick". She thereafter made a visitation to a doctor to examine her breast implants and her silicon implants were found to be completely infested with a black mold that would have inevitably ended her life. Her story is featured on the series Monsters Inside Me.