The Crunch - One Year On
The trillion-dollar question posed by the G20 summit is, 'Can the world economy boom again?' And the implicit answer seems to be, 'Maybe not just yet, but eventually, yes'. However, if the recovery that everyone's hoping for is driven by the same old principles of greed and fear, a new economic boom will inevitably give way to a new economic bust.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, the human cost of the crunch continues to escalate, with a tsunami of job losses, rising home repossessions and a debilitating sense of anxiety. Across the globe, another 50 million people have been pushed into poverty and hundreds of thousands more children will die in poor countries. It is almost as though the deity of prosperity demands ceremonial sacrifices during every recession.
As our political leaders have recently observed, 'markets do not self regulate'. Unfortunately, neither do Governments. It is not the system of capitalism or socialism that is broken. The system that is broken is the human heart. This is the inconvenient truth sidelined in the public soul-searching for explanations. The repeating poisonous cycle of greed, deception, fear, denial and guilt, and then the collapse of trust, are all symptoms of a deep selfishness in humanity.
Yet there is hope. Easter remembers the open secret that most of the world ignores - the perfect sacrifice of Christ: 'When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God' (Hebrews 10:11b-12). There is no repeating cycle of boom and bust in God's economy. Jesus was not raised again like Lazarus was, according to the same old principles of mortality. He was resurrected as a new and transformed human, the prototype of a totally new existence and the means of new way of life.
'"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more"' (Hebrews 10:16-17).
Something far more profound and permanent than the economic stimulus of the G20 is on offer. The forces of greed and consumerism can be neutralised. Christians can make a difference. The Spirit of Jesus, living in his people, can put righteousness back into the heart of leadership, and human flourishing back into the heart of business.
Have a blessed Easter
Paul Valler
Links
A year ago, just when the credit crunch was taking hold, Paul Valler wrote a reflection on it for Connecting with Culture. You can read that article here
Paul has also written on the subject of redundancy. Read the article here
You can buy a copy of Paul's book on achieving a good work/life balance here
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