God Is Not Surprised: Thoughts on the Financial Collapse and Other Crises

As the events of today have unfolded, I have had a lot of thoughts. The House did not pass the $700 Billion bail out bill, sending stocks into a 770 point free fall. Wachovia (my bank) went down today as it was bought out by CitiGroup.  I praise God that we did end up selling our house on Friday, as it appears that selling a house is going to become a much more difficult proposition. I have come to the conclusion that future home ownership is not for me, and it appears that I am not the only one who feels that way.  On top of it all, there is not much gas in the Southeast after the destruction of Hurricane Ike on Galveston, TX (God bless those people) a few weeks ago. Ugh.

What a mess. Long term, I think that it is a good thing that the bailout bill failed. We were making a move to socialism and it would kill us in the long run. But, a lot of people are losing a lot of money in the meantime. It seems that we want to guarantee prosperity for the present, no matter what the cost to our future. The policies of the Clinton and Bush Administrations, in conjunction with the greed of Wall Street and the incompetence of Congress (both Republicans AND Democrats) have led us into economic disaster.  I've been reading about this for a couple of weeks now, and it is still hard to make heads or tails of it, but basically it seems that the cost of our lavish American spending spree has come due and no one wants to pay it. We have built our financial house on sand and now that the winds and waves have come, it appears that we are not going to stand.

Instead of providing leadership, politicians and political pundits are pointing fingers and blaming one another. There is no leadership. Both Obama and McCain are hopeless and appear to be trying to make political points in the midst of all of this. Nancy Pelosi and House leadership is beyond comical and President Bush continues to flail around. At the end of the day, I am left with a complete lack of confidence in our politicians who appear to only care about their own power.

What does this mean for churches? Obviously, our trust is in the Lord, but it is foolish to think that a massive economic downturn is not going to affect churches and the ministries that we engage in. People only have so much money. It is not just non-Christians who are in debt up to their eyeballs and who bought houses that they cannot afford. Many believers have been affected as well. A great deal of older Americans who have their wealth tied up in their homes and their mutual funds are going to be hurting a great deal. It seems that now is the time for frugality and wise financial management amongst our institutional churches. The projections that I am reading concerning the future are almost apocalyptic.

We do know this: God is not surprised. Eventually, we know that everything that can be shaken will be shaken and only God's Kingdom, which cannot be shaken, will remain. Have we built our house on the rock of faith in Christ or on the sand of our own desires? Our hope is not in the markets, our home values, politics, the government (either Republicans or Democrats), or our military. Our hope must be in the Lord. Maybe these events will cause us to turn away from placing our hope in acquiring the American Dream. Maybe we will look to God and recognize that He is our Source of Life. Some have bought into the myths of our culture and have made a lot of financial mistakes. Once lessons have been learned, now is not the time to point fingers. But, it is the time for each one of us to make sure that our utter dependence is only upon God.

All of this might get worse instead of better. I don't know where it is headed, but I do know that we live in a country that is not prepared for suffering. A lot of people are having their foundations shaken. May we be a witness to Christ during this turbulent time.

UPDATE: My friend, Joe Kennedy, just left a comment on this post refering me to Bob Roberts' thoughts on the debacle that our nation is in: The Changeless Inner Core. I agree with him completely. We are in a mess and it will be a long time until we come out of it.  "The American Dream is in foreclosure."  I think that he is right.

Comments

[Joe Kennedy]

Alan, I'm with Wachovia too, now. Was with Regions (who I'm sure Wells Fargo will now target, having lost out on the Wachovia bid), but they don't have a branch close to where I live here in Texas. Of course, these mergers and acquisitions were coming regardless of the financial crunch we're seeing now. Just perhaps not quite as quickly.

Anyway, check out Bob Roberts' post today. Reminds me of some of what you've been saying lately.

I pay attention to these things because it will affect the churches. Tithes will decrease. Churches will likely go into foreclosure too. With the era of McMansions also came McMegaChurches. It's a sign that we must be less focused on buildings and more on people.

And it's going to affect people. Oh man, if something doesn't come down the tunnel soon, don't be surprised to see the suicide rate increase... where there is stress, there is a need for us to be prepared to demonstrate real hope.

[A S Hodel]

I read the MSNBC news article from your first link, and I found it interesting that not a word was written on why the House (with its Democratic majority!) voted down the bill. All that was written was from the perspective of "oh, my, how can they let this happen to me!"

Which is one of the points of your post.