Uncertain Times
Within two minutes of Alastair Darling's pre-election budget statement last week, there was heavy selling in the currency market. Now the political battle rages over whether or not things are really getting better.
On the one hand, unemployment is finally showing signs of decreasing, bank profits are up, American markets have renewed optimism and our long-awaited barbecue summer is on the way. On the other hand, the pound is at another crushing low, our sovereign debt rating is weakening, it looks like we could have a hung parliament and a 'double-dip' in the housing market. Are things getting better? I'm not sure.
Uncertainty is a hallmark of our age - nationally, on account of endless media speculation over economic and political outcomes; and personally, on account of that pernicious virus of our time, loss of trust.
Uncertainty triggers our underlying fears - fear of redundancy, fear of financial meltdown, fear of failure. Such fears can drive us into workaholism, perfectionism and a need to control everything.
Rightly this is called the age of anxiety. Yet for the Christian it is paradoxically an age of opportunity. For true faith can only exist where there is doubt. Without some uncertainty there can be no genuine trust.
The contrast between Jesus and his disciples responding to uncertainty at Easter could not be more dramatic. The disciples' reaction to his arrest showed extreme anxiety and stress - violence, flight and denial. Yet in that climate of fear and hostility, Jesus retained a calm serenity - a personal microclimate of peace. Even during the agony of the cross, he offered forgiveness, care and encouragement to others. In the darkness of alienation he trustingly said, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.'
So for us, inheritors of his Spirit, the challenge and opportunity is to spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. To be immersed in that sense of quiet confidence in God, whilst living and working in this age of economic and political uncertainty. To navigate through the restless sea of everyday circumstances focused on Jesus, trusting in the assurance of God's love and in the promise of the resurrection.
'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you' (John 14:27).
Have a blessed Easter!
Paul Valler
Comments
I am with the disciples in this! I am in the process of being made redundant after 30 years in Local Goverment. It is so so hard trying to maintain anything like Jesus' 'calm serenity' in such circumstances. I do know that everything is under God's control and is for the best. But I can't glide through it in some sort of saintly haze dispensing calmness to all around as though everything is OK. I just do my best, hoping that in and even through my frailty something of Jesus glimmers.
A very timely word; thank you. As it happans I was downlading my emails with the TV on - Channel 12 where they were running a piece on the US bank crash in the 20's. Incredible similarities between there then, and now, here! If it wasn't for teh American accents, they could have been British contributors. When WILL politicians learn about the need to tightly control the god Mammon?
Hello I see "and a 'double-dip' in the housing market" Hig house prices are NOT good for this country - although to read the press one would think otherwise. Let's hope house prices continue to fall so that people can finally afford places to live in.
Thank you for the phrase "personal microclimate of peace". One can feel very helpless in turbulent times, unable to have influence on the big issues that affect us - so why try to do anything, when you are bound to fail? Creating our own microclimates of peace seems like a viable objective, one where we can have some success (even though we don't do it perfectly).
Date:
2010-04-02 22:19:30
Author:
Moira Biggins