Act Fast, Part One

My pastor shared a statistic with our congregation on Sunday that’s stuck with me all week causing me to recognize my need to act fast.

The statistic claimed that Black Americans spend 91% of their income on consumption.¹ My quick online research revealed that economists projected that Black households possess over $1.4 trillion in spending power having spent over $835 billion in 2019.² Speaking of Black households, my mouth fell open when I read a report that “credited” Black women as the driving force for this largely “untapped” spending power of Black households. “Increasingly the heads of households, Black women are core decision makers for a lion share of African-Americans’ enormous spending power.”³

What started as a figure heard in church quickly became a consuming concern (pun intended.) I felt the Holy Spirit stirring within me. Ashamedly, that stirring did not come with clear guidance. Instead, a pressing indignation emerged. Should I be offended by the research? Should I protest the misappropriation of #blackgirlmagic from a source of joy and celebration to a means of exploitation? Or is there something else that the Lord is expecting of me?

As I sat down to pay my monthly bills, it hit me. Bill paying has that uncanny ability to hit you where it hurts. Usually, paying bills is not a highly spiritual experience for me but this week, with the reminder of the provocative statistics on Black household spending ruminating in my mind, I had a feeling that I needed to act fast. I felt an urgency to fast.

I’m a fan of fasting. Though I’ve been taught that one should never talk about their own fasting, I must admit that I fast at least annually. My initial foray into fasting came years ago after a pastorally directed congregational fast. I didn’t join that fast because I didn’t feel that I needed to give up food. And I didn’t really understand the purpose of fasting. Instead, I started a biblical study to make sure that when I participated in fasting, I did it for the right reason, not simply in response to pastoral directive. Maybe that was disobedient, but I sought to follow the Lord.

Months later, my first fast was an individual one. I did the Daniel Fast secretly and alone for 21 days.⁴  I read through the biblical book of Daniel and used a Daniel Fast devotion for guidance. Since that time, I adopted many of the Daniel Fast principals as my own eating practices. When I joined a new church, I also joined the annual, church-wide Daniel Fast during Lent. After a couple years, I realized that there was little sacrifice in it for me because of my changed eating habits. Instead, my fasting moved from food to other forms of fasting, namely sacrificing social media and other modes of entertainment. I never seriously considered giving up … dare I say it? Spending. Specifically … shopping.

Paying my bills this past month changed that. Realizing that my personal consumption expenditures equaled too high a percentage of my monthly income, I determined that this Black female head of household would no longer perpetuate the depressing and opportunistic statistics. More importantly, my spending didn’t reflect Christian stewardship. I’m not talking about income spent on tithing or giving to my church and other Christian efforts. Outside of those monthly expenditures, my monthly personal consumption showed a lack of intentionality and a heart focused on material gain. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21 (NIV). The words of Jesus rang in my spirit, drowning out those oppressive statistics, directing me to audibly request His forgiveness.

I asked myself, “In what am I trusting?” “How does my spending honor Christ?” “Am I truly living my faith?” For years, I’ve coaxed myself into believing that regularly donating old clothes, shoes, coats and household items to charities canceled out my uncontrolled spending. That weak mind trick failed to address the heart problem lurking within me. I had surrendered my power. Not the power to drive Black spending but the power to actively ignite the Spirit of Christ over my wallet. To recapture it, I knew I had to sacrifice my discretionary, non-essential spending by immediately engaging in a financial fast. I had to act fast.

Join me on this journey. I’ll be back here in a few weeks to share what the Holy Spirit reveals to me along the way.

1. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that “Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) includes a measure of consumer spending on goods and services among households in the U.S. The PCE is used as a mechanism to gauge how much earned income of households is being spent on current consumption for various goods and services.”  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Expenditure Surveys,” https://www.bls.gov/cex/cecomparison/pce_profile.htm#:~:text=Personal%20Consumption%20Expenditures%20(PCE)%20includes,Website ↩︎
2. Kori Hale, “The $300 Billion Black American Consumerism Bag Breeds Big Business Opportunities,” Forbes, September 17, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2021/09/17/the-300-billion-black-american-consumerism-bag-breeds-big-business-opportunities/?sh=50af08e834fc ↩︎
3. The Nielsen Company, Diverse Intelligence Series, 2017, “African-American Women: Our Science, Her Magic,” 2017, 55. ↩︎
4. The Daniel Fast, sometimes called the Daniel Diet, “is based on a story in the Book of Daniel. It involves consuming a strict plant-based diet for 10–21 days.” Healthline, “What Is the Daniel Fast Diet — and Is It Healthy?,” October 21, 2021, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/daniel-diet ↩︎