The Leaking Economy

What do you do when you’ve done what you know to do, and what you know to do isn’t working this time?  How do you explain the fact that time-tested methods for producing results, solving problems, and getting ahead just aren’t working this time?  How do you plug the leaks in your economic life?

Questions like these are front and center among politicians, economists, investors, and families these days.

The problem isn’t a shortage of solutions.  The problem is that that the solutions we know are supposed to work aren’t working.

We’re like a wad of sailors on a stormy sea, who keep running to opposite sides of a ship to steady it in the waves – while all the while, the hull is leaking.  I’ve seen it at kitchen tables; I’ve seen it at capital buildings.  Everything we do to steady the ship just draws in more water, and sailing has turned to bailing.

I wonder if anybody is asking – really asking – God.

(Aw, what does HE know?)

Plenty, it would appear.  This isn’t the first time politicians and businesspeople confronted a leaky economy. Tucked away among so-called minor prophets, a man named Haggai seemed to penetrate hearts and checkbooks, and, speaking on God’s behalf, rattled a few cages.

Consider Your Ways
Take a look at the financial evidence, the prophet says.

You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! (Haggai 1:6)

Does this sound familiar?  We’re talking inflated prices, diminished returns on investments, economic drains, loss of consumer confidence, and failure to satisfy family needs.  As one guy put it, our outgo exceeds our income, so that our upkeep becomes our downfall.  All the while we’re treated to spin, knee-jerk reactions, and a whole lot of head scratching.

Connect the Dots
Through Haggai, the Lord makes it clear that there is a connection between our choices and our economic results.  That connection has always been there in the form of the Law of the Harvest, which says you reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow.

It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” Haggai 1:10-11

Ouch!  Now wait a minute, God.  You made a world of scientific cause-and-effect.  Now you’re telling me that something I’m doing, some way I’m living, with no apparent scientifically-demonstrated connection, is affecting the climate, the birth rate of calves, the rate of unemployment and everything else related to the economy?  That’s hard to believe.

Believe it.  The land, mountains, grain, new wine, oil, crops. men, cattle and labor had all entered a drought season that God Himself had called for.  That pretty much represented all the facets of Israel’s economy.  Everything they did dried up.  God intervened and interfered with laws of cause and effect then.  Who’s to say He isn’t doing it now?

Correct Your Steps
So what had these people who, by the way, were supposed to be living a fairy-tale life of beginning a nation all over again, done to create such a money mess?  Take a look:

“Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” ( Haggai 1:4)

That, my friends, is the real mortgage crisis.  That’s the real credit crunch.  Fix that, or no other solution will avail.  But let’s make sure to put this in context.  What was God telling them to do?

First, reinterpret the evidence.  The people had procrastinated the rebuilding of the temple. “The time has not come,” they said.  Their evidence, according to Ezra, was the opposition of their neighbors (might) and the lack of authority from the Persian king (power).  Think again, Haggai said.  His buddy Zechariah chimed in with some evidence of his own. “There is a way that seems right to a man,” Proverbs reminds us, “but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Second, reorder your priorities.  You’re living in paneled houses, while the house of God lies in ruins.  Seen through a New Testament lens, this isn’t just a building issue.  It’s a priority issue.  Tough times are never an excuse for compromised values.

Third, recommit to your mission.  The entire reason they had returned was to rebuild the temple and reestablish a nation.  Somewhere along the way, they had forgotten that.  Would such a recommitment to action have risk involved?  Yes.  But it also carried the promise of God’s renewal and blessing.

The economic world is a lot more integrated, spiritually-sensitive, and personally connected to God than we want to admit.  So I’m checking and re-checking my own priorities and mission these days.  What comes first?  What has God called me to do?  Have I compromised my priorities, made unwise decisions, become self-serving?  Am I neglecting any responsibilities or relationships?  Am I discerning the times and anchoring my “ship” in the wisest way possible?

Maybe we all should do that.  Your thoughts?

If You Enjoyed This, You May Also Like the Following:

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• The Trust
• Building Wealth in the Land of the Clowns
• God Has an Economy, and You CAN Be Rich In It
• Every Day, Remember…
• Put Your Stinger Up
• The Vapor and the Shadow
• The Carrier

Tagged as: Discernment, Economy, Money, Priorities, Repentance, Stewardship, Stress