The news was so bad this week that there were a couple of moments when I even found myself being sucked in. Wall Street was plummeting. Housing values were sinking. New home construction was dying. Gasolene prices were still over $3.50 per gallon. And massive hurricanes were rushing our way one after another! Some news broadcasters managed to look sufficiently "concerned," but most could hardly contain their glee.
Can you spell "feeding frenzy?" Cable news channels realize that breaking news keeps us coming back for more, so bad news needs to keep breaking every half hour or so. So for more than a week now, the people who sell us the news have been ratcheting up the intensity. Two weeks ago we had not yet achieved the formal definition of "recession." This week, the Great Depression has struck- or so you'd think from listening to news reports.
How odd that in the midst of the Mother of all Depressions, Americans will still be going out to NFL games this week-end- and baseball games, and Broadway musicals, and rock concerts. Airlines tickets will sell for higher prices, and financially bereft Americans will buy them. Believe me, I understand that finances are tight and housing equity has decreased, but what we have endured this week is not the Apocalyse!
Ric Edelman points out that the foreclosure rate among American home owners is somewhere under 3% of all homes. During the Great Depression, more than 50% of all homes were under foreclosure. Banks could call in your mortgage loan anytime they faced a cashflow pinch, even though you'd made all your payments on time. They can't do that anymore. This is not the Great Depression II.
Many Americans living along the Texas Gulf Coast are experiencing a crisis today. Their homes have been destroyed, the neighborhoods are gone, and the infrastructure has been decimated. The rest of us are not in a crisis.
Wednesday night, I asked members of my church family if we could double our giving during the month of October to catch up on our missions giving, feed starving people in Zimbabwe, and send a relief team to Houston/Galveston. They responded enthusiastically that with God's help, we can do this. We are not "tapped out."
Then a missionary stood to tell us about a hospital in Zimbabwe. Although most hospitals in that desolate nation have neither medicines for sick people nor sheets for beds, one hospital in Sanyati has managed to maintain a resource lifeline to the outside world. Consequently, desperate people from across that land are constantly descending on that isolated outpost of hope. The economic conditions are worse than dreadful. Epidemics are always a threat. The courageous doctors and nurses work long, long hours with very limited supplies. Their families are always at risk.
The missionary asked them why they stay. What keeps them from relocating their families to the USA or Canada or England? They could work in high-tech medical centers and rack up financial fortunes for themselves. The doctors replied, "We love our country and God has placed us here for a time such a this."
Some people in the world are truly suffering. You and I are simply anxious.
No comments:
Post a Comment