Tackling the Student Loan

From Dan's Desk

Two pieces this week, and underneath them the same question: what do you do with wanting? The new graduate wants out from under his student loan. The man ten years into his career wants more: more income, work that actually uses what he has been given. Both of them half suspect God disapproves of the wanting itself. Scripture has a word for each man, and it is warmer than either one expects.

From Wise and Faithful

Student Debt in Canada: A Christian Guide to Tackling Your Loans

If the National Student Loans Service Centre email landed in your inbox this summer, this one was written for you. The federal portion of your loan has been interest-free since 2023, the six-month grace period has fine print worth knowing, and there is a repayment order that beats guessing. Dan walks through all of it, including the Repayment Assistance Plan for the months when the job hunt runs long, and why shame gets no vote in any of it.

Is It Okay to Want More Ambition?

Men rarely ask this one directly. It comes out sideways, usually as an apology: "I know I should probably just be grateful for what I have." Dan makes the biblical case that developing what God has handed you is obedience, and then draws the real line, the one between ambition and covetousness, in a place you can actually check against your own heart.

Worth Your Time

[Report] Back-to-School 2026: Canadian Parents Navigate a $4.5 Billion Season
Retail Council of Canada, July 27, 2026
Read
The average household spends $600 to $750 per child once electronics are counted, and September has a way of landing on a single paycheque. Worth ten minutes now: decide what the season gets before the flyers decide for you, and say the number out loud to your wife while it is still August.

[Article] How to Choose Your Next Job
Desiring God (John Piper), July 30, 2026
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Piper republished a list of Bible texts he first compiled for people weighing a job change, and it pairs well with this week's ambition essay. His opening question alone will reframe a job search: can you do every part of this work to the glory of God? Most of us have never once asked that about a posting.

[Article] Your Dad Friends Aren't Optional
ParentData (Kevin Maguire), June 20, 2026
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A few weeks old, and worth it. The share of men with six or more close friends fell by half between 1990 and 2021, and 15% of men now report having none at all. Provision includes staying connected enough to have somewhere to turn; a father carrying everything alone is carrying more than he was asked to.

The Week in One Number

61%

The share of Canadians who say at least half of their income is already committed to bills, debt payments, and regular expenses before payday arrives. One in three say most of the paycheque is spoken for; 16% say all of it, or more. If that describes your months, a budget is how you get a vote back before the money is gone.

Source: MNP Consumer Debt Index / Ipsos, July 13, 2026

Good News About the Good News

For decades the story of faith in Canada has been a decline chart, and this year the chart did something unexpected: it started to level off. Cardus and the Canadian Bible Society, drawing on three years of Angus Reid Institute polling, report that weekly service attendance among Canadians aged 18 to 34 has held steady at 16% since 2017 while the national rate slipped to 12%. Young Canadian adults now sit in church at a higher rate than the country as a whole, and 59% of them say they believe in God. The researchers are careful to call it stabilization rather than revival. Call it what it is: Christ is still calling men in this country, and the youngest ones are answering.

Source: Cardus, "Faith Restored?"

Coming Next Week

Prediction markets just arrived in Canada through Wealthsimple Predict, and you can now stake real money on a Yes or a No from the same app that holds your TFSA. Next week: what event contracts actually are, where investing ends and wagering begins, and the one question to answer honestly before you buy a Yes. See you Thursday.

The Close

Robert Robinson wrote this week's hymn line as a man who knew what it was to owe. "O to grace how great a debtor." Your student loan has a schedule, and one day it ends. The debt to grace has no schedule, because Christ settled it in full at the cross, and what remains for us is gratitude working its way out through open hands. So pay the loan down. Want more, and bring the wanting to God. You can do both as a free man, because the account that mattered most is already closed.

Grace and peace,
Dan

P.S. If a graduate in your life got that first repayment email this summer, forward him this one. The plan matters less than knowing there is one.