Often I am inspired by what I read. This article is relevant on so many levels. I hope it inspires you too.
Economic uncertainty
By Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society, United Methodist Church
The economic crisis is spreading rapidly around the world, and along with it, a growing sense of panic. Undoubtedly, there is a strong sense that this is no ordinary recession.
Fear grips the Church, as well. Local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are slashing budgets, dropping ministries, laying off staff, cutting or freezing salaries. Pensions are in peril; benefits may be reduced.
A mania bordering on panic has seized many in the Church. Some say it’s time to realign, restructure and streamline. Many say it is time to turn back to God. Turn back? It seems to me that all the time is a good time to turn to God. The “turn back” idea is that in times of crisis God is there for us. I believe that is true. God will provide.
Realistically, though, I also know it is not necessarily the case that the people of God pull together in times of emergency. For instance, there are those who consider crisis a grand opportunity to carry out long-held, often secret, agendas.
The pundits say the “roaring ’90s” are over. They predict we’ll never go back to ever-escalating stock markets and ever-rising home values. According to them, credit will never be so easily available again, so people won’t end up in such humongous debt as now.
I’m not so sure about any of those predictions. The entire economic system seems to be built on constant growth and debt. The real questions should be: How did we manage, exactly, to tie our collective fate so tightly to a casino economy? And how do we avoid that again?
Have you noticed that the companies which are steady but not spectacular earners have become classified as “mature”? The word is not intended positively. These mature companies’ executives are pressured to increase profits. We live on the quarterly profit-and-loss statement.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The wealthy have been given huge tax cuts they don’t need nor deserve. Yet, many seem to think this crisis has been caused primarily by people who have bought big houses and fancy cars. They are the welfare queens of this time of unbridled greed. Of course, the heads of our floundering financial institutions and Wall Street may be in the process of displacing them as the welfare queens.
Although giving to nonprofit organizations, including the Church, is falling, community centers, homeless shelters and food pantries are experiencing more people coming through the door asking for help because of the collapse of the economy. No one has any idea when it will end. Each time the administration has announced another leg of its economic stimulus program, the Dow Jones Average has taken a tumble. There is no confidence, just panic.
Don’t get me wrong. I know times are tight. Our agency has frozen some parts of our budget and streamlined operations. Times are tight and scary. The economic crisis worries me and energizes my prayer life.
I hope we will avoid pushing that near mania into outright panic, though, and making hasty decisions we will soon regret. Some lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If,” come to mind.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; …
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
We should all take these words to heart. God does not deal in scarcity, but rather in abundance. This economic crisis is a human construct. If you have faith that God will provide abundant life, and realize that doesn’t mean big houses and fancy cars or private jets, then you can look forward, and won’t have to turn back.
Date: 2/23/2009
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