Lenten Thoughts for an Economic Crisis
This may not be a year to observe Lent -- if you can help it. Lent is about self-denial, about giving things up. Many Americans, indeed, many worldwide, are being forced to observe this Lenten practice. With unemployment surpassing 8% nationwide and 11% here in Michigan, and the possibilities that this is only the beginning is a bit scary. I read that 12% of home owners are either behind or in foreclosure. Whether you agree or not with President Obama's programs you have to hope against hope that they work. It won't happen overnight, and people are both anxious and scared. I'm fortunate that I have a safe job -- at least for now.
If Lent is about giving things up, then perhaps this year, if you have the means, then maybe the proper Lenten observance would mean spending extravagantly? Could it mean buy stocks in the hope that these companies will rebound? This doesn't sound very spiritual, but these are difficult times requiring what might be radical solutions.
Perhaps our Lenten prayer needs to be for those who are feeling overwhelmed and without hope, that they might see light and gain a sense of meaning and purpose.
The 22nd Psalm, a psalm Jesus is said to have cried out on the cross, begins:
If Lent is about giving things up, then perhaps this year, if you have the means, then maybe the proper Lenten observance would mean spending extravagantly? Could it mean buy stocks in the hope that these companies will rebound? This doesn't sound very spiritual, but these are difficult times requiring what might be radical solutions.
Perhaps our Lenten prayer needs to be for those who are feeling overwhelmed and without hope, that they might see light and gain a sense of meaning and purpose.
The 22nd Psalm, a psalm Jesus is said to have cried out on the cross, begins:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day,
but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
(Ps. 22:1-2 NRSV)
Why are you so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day,
but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
(Ps. 22:1-2 NRSV)
It closes with a word of praise:
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
(Ps. 22:27-31)
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
(Ps. 22:27-31)
We may feel as if we are alone, that we have been abandoned, but we are reminded that we are not alone. As a Christian I affirm the principle that the church is the body of Christ, and we are Christ's presence in the world. That doesn't remove the difficulties, but it reminds us that we do not take this journey in a time of great crisis alone.
Comments
"Then cometh Jesus with then unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples. Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me." (Matthew 26,36-38)
I think depression is one of the most tragic of which passes through the soul of a person, and because it disfigures the depression self-esteem, self, a sense of transcendence, and other qualities that make man the biggest creations of God. It is an evil that seeks to dispel that image that God placed in us.
In the Bible there are cases of people like Abraham, Moses, King David, the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet Jonah, the Old Testament and New Testament in the case of the apostle Peter and Paul, and even of the Lord Jesus Christ through times of depression.
Sin however I just want to refer to the text of Matthew 26,36-46 in showing that the Lord Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, suffered a great depression because they experience a profound sadness and a mortal agony. The Lord Jesus looms the intense suffering that was going to experiment until his death at the hands of the Jews, so they turned to the Lord for a prayer that she can regain the strength and peace I needed to face their prueba.
Siendo that the Lord your face depression as any man and found out to them in prayer, this may be a good choice whether you are taking medications as therapy or as an act of faith to level the emotions that are found in our hectic hearts
I always imagined the disiples were drunk and/or tired that night.
And hence they @@#$- up
If they were depressed, I'm enlightented. I've been there (too)!
Where are you from?
Best regards and wishes- David Mc
A big welcome to you Luis!
(I'm pretending I've been here a while)