I woke up this morning to the breathless news anchors predicting the collapse of civilization as we know it as we watched the Dow Jones tumble to a 500 point drop. Recession, worry, bad news, and more bad news as the anchors ripped off one bad indicator after another. I wasn't alive back then, but you'd have thought it was the stock market crash of 1929.
And then...the market started to gain back what it had lost. As I write this it's down 126. Not great, but certainly not the end of the world.
It's amazing how fear-based life really is. Yes, we have some real concerns about our economy right now. Yes, we may have to cut back on some of our desires to really meet what we need. But as Christians, no matter what's happening in the economy, we can live in faith. For our creator owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He created the earth and all that's in it. And he promises to meet out daily needs (not necessarily wants and desires but our daily needs).
Tough economic times can be a great way for us to re-discover the power of trusting in God rather than in the economy. And there's a lot less fear when we trust in him!
About Me
- Pastor Tim
- I grew up in St. Louis Park, MN. I've been living in Arizona since 1984. I root for the AZ Cardinals, The Vikings and the Adelaide Crows (Australian Rules Football). I married my high school sweetheart, Jan, in 1979. We have a Beagle, Santi, and a Dachshund, Saba, and two real children that we love almost as much--Alycia married to Corey, who have a son, Judah, and Mike, married to Amber, who have a daughter, Clover, and a son, Phoenix. I am Sr. Pastor of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in Peoria, AZ. I am also the author of a new book on boys--Searching for Tom Sawyer: How Parents and Congregations Can Stop the Exodus of Boys from Church (www.TimWrightMinistries.org)
2 comments:
Hi again from Paris,
I don't want to clog up your blog comment box, but I do have some questions about what you just said... mostly the last two paragraphs.
First, I do agree that life is increasingly based on fear. I think this is a huge problem and directly contributes to how we let people infringe on our rights in the name of "protection." But this is not what I want to talk about. Fear-based life is what life in America is at this moment in history (for a number of good and terrible reasons).
I am no economist and don't want to talk about the economy either. It's an important issue that I don't know enough about to comment on.
However, in many conversations with some Christians that I have had, I have been given an argument of, "God will take care of us. He created the Earth and will make sure everything is a-ok." This is most prevalent in conversations that I have had about environmental issues.
I think that while it is a comfortable thing that God says he will meet your needs, he also said (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong) something along the lines of the idea that we are to be stewards of the Earth and our bodies. They are God's, but we are responsible for their well-being. Is this accurate?
I think the attitude saying, "As Christians, no matter what happens in the (insert important issue here), we can live in faith" is a dangerous and ultimately destructive attitude.
While there is probably little we can do about the economy on our own (it seems to me that is more up to the Fed, the markets, policy makers, etc), if you insert other issues into that blank, sitting back and saying, "Well at least I know I'm fine because I'm a Christian" is exactly the wrong approach. When you say "we can live in faith" does this mean that if we screw up beyond our ability to recover, that you live in faith that God will intervene and make things ok again. Or is it just that, maybe we will destroy the earth or the economy or ourselves, but we have Heaven to look forward to, so it's not that big of a deal?
I know this seems like a specifically environmentalist post, but this argument has been used for a number of issues for me.
Do you think that we have a responsibility to care for ourselves? What is God's role in how our economy, or our environment, or our health functions? Does he just care for people or do they have responsibilities to be good stewards of their body and earth and life that Christians believe God gave them?
I'm sorry this is very long. If you would prefer to discuss this through email, that would be fine as well.
My email is davidmw AT bgsu dot edu
David,
I agree with your comments. My point was simply to say that we should put our trust in God, not the economy. Having said that, to trust God means to live life as God intended us to live it--which means loving God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves. In other words, a life of trust frees us up to live in a way that serves others, that works to make sure that the "have nots" have. To make sure that we care for this planet as God intends us to. For Jesus, the fact that God cares for us propels us to live as others-centered rather than self-centered. That will be the main focus of our new series here at Grace (which you'll have to listen to on our website--www.faceofgrace.org) starting Feb. 3--40 Days of Simply Living. We'll be talking about the gift of simplifying life so that others can simply live.
Great comments.
Thanks for reading the blog and for commenting.
Tim
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