Have just paid the University of Manchester £1.6k for the privilege of studying hard for another 12 months!  It's a lot of money - more than 10% of my (net) income (including occasional fees) and I have been pondering, in the light of what I'm preaching on on Sunday, about priorities, with respect to Haggai.

Is this expenditure £1.6k worth of self indulgence?  Or is it £1.6k given to the greater service of God? Or is it somewhere in the middle?  Is it justified when people all over the world die for lack of clean water or basic health care?  Would my life style be different if I wasn't paying out this figure?

£1.6k is the fees, but the books, software (at least in year 1) travel, summer school and various sundries push it well over £2k.  It's a lot of money and even if the nice people at the BU give me a bit of help with the fees, and generous friends let me stay with them at no charge, it eats away my meagre savings.

But then I think about Haggai again and wonder what kind of Temple I'm building for God and how much I'm just being materialistic.

A few clicks of the computer mouse and 'woof' £1.6k gone from me to the university.  That's a lot of bars of chocolate, cups of coffee, trips to the cinema etc etc.  It is also an awful lot of poverty relief.

So here I am, skint and on a guilt trip!  I enjoy the studying and the structure of the university course means it gets done and written up, which probably would not happen otherwise.  Whether this directly helps me in my disicpleship or ministry and/or whether it in any way benefits the church or Kingdom, I'm less sure.  I'd like to hope it does - maybe it's just my odd desire to read dusty old books rather than improve pastoral care or spiritual development resources that leaves me feeling uneasy.  If at the end of six years I am able to contribute something that enables churches to reflect better on how they contemplate change, then it will have been worth the time, effort and expense - and maybe I won't feel so guilty (even though I'll be very, very skint!)