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Commentary
COMMENTARY: Good News in hard times Shannon Vowell, Mar 25, 2009
Shannon Vowell
By Shannon Vowell Special Contributor
Choosing to read the news headlines these days feels more and more like an act of masochism. The words “recession” and even “depression” have become ubiquitous.
Acts of violence and sudden tragedies—the usual mainstay of front pages—appear as frequently as ever. But now they are subsumed into a collective downward spiral that pulls everyone into darkness and despair, a socioeconomic vacuum that will only end when we hit some as-yet-unimaginable low point and finally “bottom out.”
What is a thinking Christian to make of all this, particularly if he or she has been laid off, is losing a home to foreclosure or is suddenly destitute after a pension fund has failed?
Think like a Christian
Perhaps most importantly, the thinking Christian must decide to think as a Christian, rather than as a casualty of the times. I’m not advocating explaining away hard truths, but I am suggesting that hard truths never cancel out Truth in the form of Jesus Christ.
Being a Christian does not change one’s material circumstances. But being a Christian does change a central fact: that one is no longer defined by one’s material circumstances.
In Christ, “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female” (Galatians 3:28); logically, then, in Christ there is no longer affluent or unemployed, there is no longer solvent or bankrupt, there is no longer he who climbs the corporate ladder or he who takes the fall.
In Christ, there is one supreme reality that trumps material circumstances, no matter how all-defining those circumstances may feel: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything old has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Are we living like we believe that? Or are we as terrified, depressed or desperate as would be logical in light of the headlines, as opposed to in light of Christ?
Look to God
It’s interesting to note that God considered how circumstances might affect the faith of the ancient Hebrews. In the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord gives some extended warnings about looking to Him, rather than to circumstances, for reality.
But the circumstances that looked problematic to God are the polar opposite of what dominates our headlines today. In fact, the circumstances God warns against sound a whole lot like the “good old days” of our recent past: “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God . . . ” (Deuteronomy 8:12–14).
If our circumstances are driving us to despair, perhaps it’s because we bought the lie—in our prosperity—that our joy was derived from circumstances.
I don’t mean to imply that it’s not Christian to grieve loss, in whatever form; but to grieve “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) is to miss out on the application—the transformational reality—of being Christian.
After cautioning the Hebrews against pride in times of plenty, God describes His own character by reminding them of what He has done for them. God is the One “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock and fed you with manna in the wilderness that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good” (Deuteronomy 8: 15–16). Notice the trajectory of the story: God frees, God leads to safety and plenty, and God urges to “remember.” He feeds his hungry people and protects them from the material threats that surround them. God wants to do them good.
We are not lost
It’s so easy to get lost in the headlines, particularly when they are borne out in our day-to-day experiences. Yet God calls us to remember that we are not lost; we are found. We are not those who have no hope; we have Christ. And we are not defined by our circumstances; we are defined through our living Lord.
The good news about living in hard times is that our Good News is always more relevant and absolute than anything Wall Street or the government or even our own poor choices can dish out. And sometimes, hard times remind us of that in a way that more prosperous times do not.
Scripture is clear that God wants to give us good things. But Scripture is also clear that God is more interested in our goodness than in our things. Could it be that from God’s perspective a recession can count as a “good thing”? Perhaps yes, if it inspires goodness or draws us to Himself, which is the ultimate “good thing.”
Are these hard times? You bet. And that’s a hard truth. But nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And that Good News is more solid than any hard truth out there.
You see, ultimately, this recession will end. Recessions always do. And when it does, that good news will only be magnified by the Good News that’s going to get us through in the meantime.
Shannon Vowell
