Blog Faith and Fear

By Tom McCullough

Did you hear what the president said regarding the nation’s economic crisis?

“Values have shrunken to fantastic levels;…our ability to pay has fallen;… the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence.”

He put the blame squarely where it belonged.

“…[T]he rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence…Practices of unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion,…Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money…They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.”

But he did not despair.

“…let me assert my belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”

Yeah, you finally guessed it. President Bush did not speak these words. They were powerful pro-nouncements from the lips of President Franklin Roosevelt taken from his inaugural address in March 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. Uncanny how our times are eerily similar to those of 75 years ago, huh? Mark Twain said, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Now, I suppose you are expecting me to say something like, “As bad as it was then we made it through because of our determination, grit, ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit, etc. So, by God’s grace we can do it again!!”

But that’s not what this is about. I’m no prophet of doom. I’m not predicting continual economic col-lapse and national catastrophe. I’m just saying that it’s possible that this current crisis might get worse, a lot worse, before it gets better. So, what do we do as the housing and stock markets keep falling and our disposable income shrivels away?

I learned a lesson from another crisis that occurred nearly 2000 years ago when a small boat on the Sea of Galilee almost capsized in a violent storm. The entire nucleus of the Church of Jesus Christ was al-most wiped out before it even had a chance to get its feet wet (pun intended). “Lord, don’t you care that we are perishing?” the disciples cried, waking Jesus from sleep. His simple rebuke of nature stilled waves and wind but the real rebuke came in the form of a question; “Why are you afraid, oh men of little faith?”

Do you see it? Faith and fear could not coexist in the Lord’s economy. Either you were afraid of what might happen to you, or you had faith to believe that in spite of what might happen, Jesus was right there in the boat with you. I don’t know about you, but my boat is rocking and the waves are getting higher. Do I scream in fear or trust that God is still in control?

In light of the current crisis that has obviously affected missions (income down, weak dollar = horrible exchange rates around the world, etc.) we can stand frozen in fear wringing our hands; we can flee the crisis by withdrawing the “troops” altogether; or we can face the challenge head on by exercising faith, in what John Piper calls, God’s future grace. This faith recognizes God is trustworthy not because He got us through this in the past, but because He said he would stay with us tomorrow—even if things didn’t get better (Ps 23:4; 1 Chronicles 28:20; 2 Chronicles 20:15; Isaiah 41:10, et al).

Maybe along the way, as finances get tighter and tighter, we will learn the lesson that FDR encouraged us to learn three-quarters of a century ago. “These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister ourselves to our fellow men.” To-day’s present crisis reveals that, as a people, we didn’t learn that lesson very well. Maybe this time it’ll take.