535 The Second Depression? No Way!
Not only is the economy in the toilet, but some great hand has pushed the handle and flushed it. This crisis is so huge that every one reading this has experienced it in a personal way. The last time we all shared a financial meltdown of this magnitude was The Great Depression.
We no longer have to interview folks in their 80’s or pull out history books to see how people deal with hardship; we can just turn on the TV, talk to our neighbor or ask Clothman.
Yep, just yesterday I lost another $3,500 without even looking at a casino. I watched helplessly as the stock market plunged another wallet-busting 300 points. I hadn’t taken a beating like that in …days. As we all know, the stock market has lost a head slapping 52% of its value since October 2007. It is the greatest loss of wealth in US history.
Many who order from the senior menu have lost half of their retirement funds. Those of us who are just a few years from the senior menu will be retiring several years later than we originally thought thanks to our retirement money being wacked in half as well.
Estimates are that around 650,000 Americans will loose their jobs in February; that’s nearly 4.5 million jobs that have vanished since December 2007. The same thing is happening globally – although many countries have it even worse than us.
If you bought a house in the last five years or so your home value has plunged below the amount you owe faster than you can say “Holy Deflation.” Atrocious lending practices and job losses have driven foreclosures to high water marks never thought possible. There are so many houses on the market that selling one is more difficult than getting the NRA to give President Obama a big hug. As a result of this housing glut, folks like my aging mother and mother-in-law who need to sell their homes and move closer to Clothwoman and me for serious medical and personal reasons, simply can’t.
No wonder they called the last crisis like this The Great Depression. Other terms that come to mind are frustration, anger, hopelessness, anxiety, worry and fear. Are we doomed to watching this crisis become The Second Depression which sinks our peace, kills our hope, robs our joy and pulverizes our patience? I say a resounding, NO! We can, and we will rise above this crisis just as our forefathers did in their time and those who came before them.
The answer is not another government bailout; it is a divine out look. Allow me to direct you to Jesus’ brilliant words in Matthew 6:19-34 in which he says (among other things), “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. ...Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
Look up. Look out. Look around. Look within. Find the good and celebrate it. If you can’t find anything good, make something good happen. Capitalize on today in spite of the troubles it brought with it. Hard times do not have to equal bad times.
I say we refuse to allow this crisis to become The Second Depression!
|
|
