image from Jrome
With all the swirl of news, sometimes we can view the reality of lay-offs as statistics, numbers on a chart. In January alone the American economy lost 598,000 jobs.
Derek Olsen has a fabulous post up that gets at the vulnerable side, the personal side of those numbers:
A lot of Americans are finding themselves in this predicament and our numbers seem to be growing daily. The toppling edifices of Wall Street are crushing Main Street, where we live, work—and worship. In fact, this financial crisis is not just coming into our homes, it’s already in our churches through me and the thousands others like me. Its times like these that the church needs to step up and remember exactly what it is called to be: a nurturing community intent on proclaiming the Good News. Not economic news, not even social news, but the Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus that transcends economic info—that God loves me, Jesus cares for me whether I’m employed or not, and that the Body of Christ cares too.
Derek goes on to make some suggestions on how faith communities might become "nurturing communities intent on proclaiming the Good News" in this particular moment:
Recognize that I’m freaking out! And that it’s both ok and normal…
Have some basic resources in place to give me a hand
Having been the person who is laying off and, on occasion, the person laid off - I so connected with what Derek writes here:
Whatever you do, do not even contemplate using the words “God” and “plan” in the same sentence. As in—“Well, things may look bad now but remember that this is all part of God’s plan for you…” It doesn’t make me feel any better—and it’s bad theology. God is not a puppeteer pulling strings to screw things up so I learn “life-lessons.” A worldwide recession and the concomitant human sufferings that it causes (far worse than mine) is not God’s idea or plan. Can God make good things come out of it? Most definitely. Can I learn valuable lessons from this experience if and when I keep my eyes focused on God? Oh yeah. God can bring resurrection out of the bleakest situations—that’s the message of the cross and empty tomb. But that doesn’t mean God causes or plans these things. I have great faith in human freedom and therefore human sin—both individual and collective—to really screw things up. Thankfully I have an equally great faith in God to bring resurrection to flower in the midst of it.
There is also a great piece at WSJ - Addicted to Success: The recession is exacting punishment for a psychological vice: unmitigated identification of self with occupation.
To disassociate identity from professional status, therapists recommend taking pride in characteristics that can't be stripped away -- virtue, integrity, honesty, generosity. They also recommend investing more time and pride in relationships with family, friends and community. Of course, obsessive attention to work can breed success. But therapists say that adding some balance tends to help rather than hurt performance, in part by reducing pressure.
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