Don't Despair, Hope in God

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Author’s Note: Given high inflation, political upheaval, and the moral/cultural challenges families must juggle today, I am reminded of the Great Recession of 2008. That U.S. stock market crash had a worldwide impact for 18 months or more.

An 1849 adage coined by French journalist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr seems appropriate here: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

I wrote the column below for the 2008 November-December issue of AFA Journal. Dr. Joseph Stowell’s advice was highlighted then, and I believe his insights are evergreen; thus, a recap of his wisdom.

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In mid-September [2008], the nation’s big financial institutions began to fall like dominoes. Two weeks later, the Dow Jones Index plummeted to its lowest one-day loss in history. On the home front, in our neighborhoods, mortgage loans were going into foreclosure at record levels, gasoline prices were skyrocketing, 401-K retirement funds were losing as much as 40%, and it seemed that no ordinary citizen would escape the flurry of fiscal failures.

I confess I don’t even understand what all of those things mean, but the incident certainly cast a dark shadow over a beautiful fall season in the South. Everyone appeared shocked, dismayed, or fearful. And, since it was, of course, no one’s fault, everyone was pointing fingers – at government, at banks, at Wall Street, at the greed of the American consumer.

In the context of this fiasco, I drove on October 6 to attend a three-day seminar at The Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Dr. Joseph Stowell, Cornerstone University president, would be teaching on “Think Right, Live Right” using selected Psalms as his texts.

Better than any other contemporary writer I know, Dr. Stowell brings clarity to the basic principles of the Christian walk. His book Simply Jesus is one I read every year.

In the first session, he said, “I’m going to call an audible.” He said he just couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room, knowing that the whole nation – we Christians included – seemed suddenly susceptible to despair. So he proceeded to bring scriptural truths from Psalms 42, 11, and 23, urging us not to despair but to put our hope in God and to be content, whatever circumstance we face.

Psalm 42:5 expresses the essence of his challenge:

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

Dr. Stowell’s messages that weekend did indeed challenge me not to despair but to hope in Christ. He urged me to take inventory of my life and my material possessions, to measure my wants and needs – and to differentiate between the two. Second, he dared me to reassess my role as an activist in our society. When I take a stand for life and marriage and family, am I doing so with the right heart? Third, he made me think more clearly about the role of Christians being salt and light in our culture.

Join me in taking a look at those three challenges on a personal level. Dr. Stowell said our culture is on a “heavily trafficked way to Stuffville.” Hmmm … What about our stuff? Can we claim that we need all the stuff we want and still keep a straight face?

“The church has been long on mad and short on mercy for too long,” Dr. Stowell said. Hmmm … are we short on mercy when we make our righteous pronouncements and take our proud stands?

Finally, he challenged, “Your town ought to say, ‘We don’t quite get these Christians, but our town is a better place because of them.’” Hmmm … would your town say it’s a better place because of you? Would mine? Good food for thought.

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