So many things have happened recently, especially with the news of financial industry’s meltdown, followed by recession and streams of bad news following it. Are these a surprise? No. After all, every decade or so the world gets into recession. Even businesses have its cycles, and humans have moods. What am I trying to say? Well, this world is imperfect, and there are always repercussions.
Everything goes back to what we know from biblical times. Through one man’s sin, all have sinned. Men never change. Throughout history, it is always about greed, status and personal pleasure. Whether we like it or not, deserve it or not, all of us face difficulties in this current recession, though perhaps some more than others.
Does this shake our confidence in God? No, but rather we must reflect and remember this world is not God’s world, that we are all now here for a purpose – to become more like Christ. What is God’s greatest wish besides having one take the step towards salvation? It is for the individual to allow God to step in, renovate his heart and become the person God really wants him to be.
At times, if you are in a bad mood and read the bible, you can even for that brief second or days consider God to be a sadist. Is it easy, in the midst of one’s trial, to read passages like ‘consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face....’ face what? Trials and persecutions. Reason? So that we can become complete, not lacking anything. Try reading that when you are in the midst of a storm.
And yet, it is our firm grounding on God’s Word, knowing His promises, knowing He is our ever constant God, knowing that He will eventually work everything out for our good (remember always that many times, what God considers your ultimate good is definitely not what you think is the best for yourself at this moment, until you are near the finishing line and when you look back, you realize you have gone such a long way and indeed God’s way is better) that we hang on in the name of faith.
Praying for faith never works because faith is not an end product – it is a journey. Faith encompasses two things – eating and exercising. Eating is when we ‘hear the word of God’ and a seed is planted in our heart. However, we know that if we do not exercise, we become fat and do not have the strength to run the distance if required. We need exercise to keep us lean and strong. It is the same with faith. You cannot just hear and remember all the scriptures, then when the time comes, simply claim it but not have the experience to know that it works. It is like running. If you do not constantly train yourself, you can get all dressed up and ready to run the distance, yet you know you cannot run that distance. Why? Lack of training. We can read the bible faithfully and go to church every Sunday to plant the seed of faith in our hearts, but we need to internalize and practice faith in our day to day walk in order to finish life’s journey.
In good times, perhaps prior to the announcement of recession, we will most likely have a slightly better life. When life is better, do you forget God or put your relationship with Him in second place? Yes, perhaps not completely, but maybe if you think back, you may have prayed less. You are doing well at work, so you are so busy you do not have time to even call your spouse, not to mention praying to God more often throughout the day. Of course, not everyone is like this. But, perhaps we start to take things for granted? Or we may become discontented and think that it is time to take the next step and improve on our standard of living? I think this recession is also a time to meditate whether we have, in our race of life, actually put God in second place until the recession started and we pray more often. Again, this is a hypothetical scenario. I include this portion because throughout the bible, you will note that again and again, people forget God when times are good. Then what happens? God always put them in some kind of difficulty, they start crying out to God, and then again God goes to their rescue and yet…. What happens next? They forget God again.
Times of recession are never easy. I remember clearly what happened in 1983 recession – my dad lost a good job and we had to skip one or two meals everyday. No dinner, but I always wake up for supper which is just plain porridge and a teaspoon of Bovril. No money even for food during recess in school. What happened during the 1997 crisis? Yeah, graduated at the wrong time. However, this time round is a world of difference to me. Hey, I am not sarcastic and wish for a worse life for the new year, but after going through previous recessions without God and still alive and kicking, I know that this time round it will be a much easier feat and I will be ‘more than conqueror’ with Christ fighting the battle alongside me now. Easy to say? No. Right now I have faced more than a full month of zero sales and that means spending on my savings which will be emptied soon if my situation does not improve. Worse still, just this week there was a fallout case and a family matter that requires some funds. When it rains, it pours.
I have my job right now owing to people who are never contented and satisfied. Let us be honest – a lot of industries thrive under such circumstances. If it is not for people’s discontentment, will they always be looking for new jobs that pay them higher salary? If it is not greed, why do people want to keep changing house and car? If it is not for social status and the appearance of it, why must people buy designer products? Yet, what is black has its flip side and it is whiter than white. If we do not feel the need to progress, then we will not improve on our talents and therefore will fail God. After all, God gives us talent to put to good use on this earth. If we do not own houses or money, then where is the inheritance God has promised in His Word that He has for each of us? If we are not successful and can therefore show others that God has truly blessed us and be the light and salt of the earth, then are we supposed to be in rags and wonder why people do not believe our message of hope from the bible for this world?
In my walk with God, I have discovered that everyone may strive for same things in life – better careers, fantastic results in school, perfect marriages, bigger cars and houses. Yet, the difference is really our attitudes and to what extent we are willing to sacrifice our lives for it. God never wants us to be just where we are now or to stagnate. We are supposed to be ever climbing and ever moving upwards. Yet, we must not compromise our God-given conscience for them. For example, work is work but will you do what is slightly wrong in God’s eyes so that your firm and even you can earn more money? In your marriage, do you put yourself first always or recognize that now two hearts are joint in one and act accordingly? When we want bigger houses and cars, do we simply buy the biggest house and car we can afford based on the amount the bank is willing to lend us for it, and if anything goes wrong then act innocent that we have no part to play in our failure and therefore now God has to come to our rescue?
We are only God’s stewards. The turning point for me this year is really when I take this seriously and act upon it. For instance, when I do earn more during peak seasons, I know that a farmer saves during harvest time for times of drought. We cannot live simply believe that we can spend everything we have since now we are managing God’s money. When I want to spend on luxury items, I always do my research and try to the best of my ability to use as little of God’s resource as I can on it. When I want big items in my life (still praying for a good value-for-money house), I always pray to God for His timing.
Sometimes, we think that money can solve all problems. Yes, indeed we do need money to pay for our bills. But look at the life of Paul. He said whether in plentiful or little, it is fine. I have pondered over it and since the beginning of this year, prayed to God about how this can be. After all, everyone depends on money (have to understand one of my phobias is poverty and starvation so I always talk about money). I am glad that even before Pastor Rony talked about the sermon where he said that the value of money varies over time and it may end up be worth nothing, that I have my conclusions about this subject. We always think that if we have more money, we will be happier. This is not the case. I have very interesting candidates I interviewed throughout this year and I can tell you this is not so. It is simply a chasing after the wind. On the one hand, it is true you can earn more, dollars wise. However, whether you spend wisely or there’s ‘a hole in your pocket’ (which is a curse God puts on some people) is another matter. Also, another curse the bible talks about is the rich having great feasts but the food does not satisfy their stomachs. It is better to have a humble dish on the table with people you love than constantly have meat with strive and envy in your life (extracted from book of Proverbs if I remember correctly). Again, my recent readings on the minor prophets also have the same emphasis. Look at the life of Daniel and his companions. They were served royal dishes in the king’s palace! Yet, Daniel stood his ground and wanted vegetables. In the end, they had greater wisdom and health than the rest of the officials in the king’s palaces!
Year 2009 has so far been promised a year of recession and less for all. Instead of going to the new year with a negative mind, I think it will help all God’s children to literally become true Christians and be light and salt of this earth when they understand that no matter what the lot is that God will provide for us this new year, we can always be happy with even the simpler things in life. I have started acting on it in my own way and found that my happiness level has not decreased. For one, see where you can cut down on your expenditure column. In good times, I always have my iced latte at Coffee Bean whenever I am tired. Now, it is a blessing to have it just once a week. In better times, I may have my iced latte and muddy mud pie at Coffee Club but now I do it less often and sometimes substitute it with Hershey’s sundae pie and iced barley at Burger King.
Whatever may happen, we will all be fed because we are worth much more than the birds of the air and we will all be clothed since even flowers that fade the next day are always beautiful. Ok. What if the worst of the worst happens? Sometimes when I am really frustrated over money I will tell myself that if I run out of money one day and have to starve, never mind, I can see Christ earlier and that always makes me smile.
Whatever it is, the world has taught us that we are, firstly, very imperfect humans living on this earth and secondly, we absolutely have no control over external events in our lives. Take relationships, for instance. We can try our best in marriages, friendships, family relationships, colleagues…. But we absolutely cannot make it the best we want because it also depends on the willingness of the other party, and we know we are working together with yet another imperfect human. There are too many variables when it comes to relationships and long time ago, I felt that the best way out of life is to isolate oneself up on a mountaintop and then I will feel peace (before I became a Christian). It is very much like the Buddhist way of escapism. However, God’s way is for us to mix around. Yes, His command is for us to get together and encourage one another. But why, really, why subject yourself to another human being and risk getting hurt and disappointed? It is because God is also perfecting our lives through people. When we have disagreements with our spouses, we will realize that problems always stem from a flaw somewhere, or maybe many layers of flaws. Then, it becomes our responsibility thereafter to improve ourselves. When we get to know friends better, we can help one another or simply be comforted. We may even get a word from someone who can unlock the block in our heart and help us to move on.
In all things, ‘Seek righteousness, seek meekness.’ (Zephaniah 2:3) Above all, put God first in your life. Obey God’s commands and put on all the armors as recorded in the last chapter of Ephesians. In your dealings with this world, always remember to guard your friendships (book of Proverbs) because bad friendships spoil useful habits. Treasure all you have and you will be happy.
To all, a very happy and blessed year 2009!
Zenn.
20th December 2008.
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