<\/p>\n
Thriving in Tough Times Part 10<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>(James 1:11)<\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing pleasant about tough times. Employment is better than unemployment. Paying your mortgage is better then being kicked out of your home by foreclosure. Repairing your old car isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as fun as buying a new one. Tough times are just that. Nobody likes going through them, but here they are.<\/p>\n We retool our thoughts and habits to survive through the tough times and wait for better times to return. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know anyone that actually looks forward to tough times. That would be kind of sick wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I mean, what good do tough times do us? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it be better if we were all fully employed, fully mortgaged, fully transported and fully funded? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the American dream. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with that?<\/p>\n Everybody deserves to own their own home. Everyone deserves a new car \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why they make new models every year. Everyone deserves new furniture, new clothes, and every Friday night out at Applebee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. Right? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the TV says \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and since we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fully bought into the idea that everyone deserves their own TV (or two) and 200 channels filled with spokesmen telling us what everyone deserves, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all well informed.<\/p>\n When dark days come along and everyone doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get everything everyone tells us everyone deserves we call it \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctough times.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> Like what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in now. Surely, nothing good can come of it.<\/p>\n Or can it? Could there be any positive purpose behind living through tough times? You should have asked my Grandpa. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not here anymore, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in heaven. Most of his generation is gone now too. Grandpa and his generation lived through a time in this country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history called the Great Depression<\/em>, and that experience profoundly affected the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be surprised at the similarities between life just before the stock market crash of 1929 and the stock market crash of 2008. Never in America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history had consumerism, easy credit and market speculation taken hold of citizens as it did in the Roaring Twenties<\/em>.<\/p>\n By 1914, Ford had produced just half a million automobiles. But by 1929 there were 26 million registered in the United States. Henry Ford put owning an automobile within the reach of every American. At the same time another great development hit the public \u00e2\u20ac\u201c electrification. Electric power in American homes meant new appliances to be made and bought. By 1929 over one million refrigerators, one million washing machines and millions of radios had been purchased. American factories, thanks to Henry Ford, had developed assembly line systems, which meant they could make more products cheaper and faster than before, which meant the manufacturers had to find more consumers, which led to a few more inventions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mass advertising<\/em> and easy credit<\/em>. For the first time, Americans were told \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you need more stuff\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take it home today but pay for it later.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n Of course, the companies making the stuff were booming so ordinary citizens were putting more and more of their cash into the companies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stock. Finally, we were smothered in stuff, smothered in easy credit and the companies whose stock we owned were smothered in inventory. Then the credit stopped. Then the buying stopped. Then the jobs went away. On top of the economic devastation, the weather seemed to turn against them as well; a year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long drought turned America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farming heart into a great Dustbowl. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a good time.<\/p>\n Sound familiar yet?<\/p>\n Did any good come out of the Great Depression? Any positive outcome for a time of such economic devastation? We know that the Depression generation developed habits that defined our society for years – thrift, hard work, saving for a rainy day, aversion to credit, a unique combination of self-reliance and community, and a shared faith.<\/p>\n As the Depression generation aged and began to pass from society, the lesson learned seemed to pass with them. Less than eighty years after the greatest economic disaster this country has ever faced, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re repeating it because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re repeating what caused it. Only this time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing it to the tenth power.<\/p>\n Did you know that we (the USA) are over 11 trillion dollars in debt right now? We owe China $1.8 trillion. If we paid them a million dollars an hour (just principle, no interest), it would take more than 200 years to pay them back. What if they want their money tomorrow?<\/p>\n We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in this folks and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be in it for a while. So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s look for positive purpose behind what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going through; what are the lessons we can take away from this experience, and what opportunities do tough times hold for us as followers of Christ?<\/p>\n Fat times breed fat bellies (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking physically and spiritually). The positive purpose behind tough times is that they burn fat. They burn away the laziness, selfishness, and complacency that comes along with the feeling that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re secure with all the stuff piled around us. When all our stuff and prestige and activity melt down with the economy we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re forced to answer the question, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153where does my security really lay?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> Is it in the stuff or in something else? When a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sense of security goes away one of two things happen: he sets out in search of a new source of security, or he loses hope.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I started this series ten weeks ago with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Adopting a Christian Worldview.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to know who you are and where you stand in the universe before you can understand the ultimate source of your security.<\/p>\n