(Note: This is May Day. As in "May day! May day!")
We're all thinking, "When will this current crisis end?" We're all pretty tired of "social distancing" as a term all its own. We're sick of a worldwide quarantine. And we want it to end. But most of us are not considering the possibility -- the very real possibility it seems to me -- that it won't, actually, end.
Consider. I work for a university. Like all schools, they shut down before the end of the semester. The idea is, "Don't worry. We can resume operation for the fall semester." But ... can we? As this thing pushes on into more and more extensions, that question looms larger. In my state, most of the universities start their fall sessions in mid to late August. That means that parents will have to determine if they're going to spend their already stretched resources on expensive education in less than four months or keep it on hand to recover from this mess. Instead of "We can resume in the Fall," they're more likely thinking "We'd better wait until next year." How many universities can sustain those kinds of losses? Then there is the natural loss of contributions and endowments that occur in crisis. How many universities can sustain those additional kinds of losses? U.S.News reported last month that this is starting to look like a "Higher Education Apocalypse." MarketWatch says that some universities will be forced to close permanently. Estimates are at 20%, but that will go up as this thing drags on. Obviously it's not just universities. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz envisions a 30% loss of businesses from this. One out of three permanently gone.
It gets worse. Suggestions are that these "social distancing" rules may continue for months. I've read up to 6 months from some experts. At least. How do we function with that kind of operating principle? Spaces that once held 100 or 200 or 500 or more people will have to drop to 10 or 20 or 50. How does any business continue operation with those kinds of limitations? In an economic society that operates on volume, we're looking at an end of that society. In a world where businesses hire thousands to do their work, we're looking at an end of businesses. We already have tens of millions of people out of work and a massive number beyond that who are underemployed. How many businesses will be able to hire them back?
When do these temporary measures become a permanent state of being? Sure, there will come a day when the lockdown will be lifted. What about the social distancing? What about the government surveillance? What about the new socialism we've signed up for? Will we be a nation with a mindset of government assistance? Should we expect a return of, say, First Amendment rights? Or, more likely, more restrictions on constitutional rights? (Check the history books, folks. It has happened before.) What about the debt we've incurred for our children's children's children? And when the lockdown is lifted, what will remain when it does? How will we recover? How much loss is permanent? Are we looking at a sea change? I honestly don't know, but it sure looks bleak from this vantage point.
But, in all honesty, I'll let you guys worry about that stuff. I'm sure glad I have a Sovereign God. Maybe you might want One, too.
7 comments:
I don't see that preparing for whatever eventuality might present itself contradicts or detracts from belief in a sovereign God.
I'm trying to help my niece with those decisions now, and I can't see the value in her starting college in the fall if it's going to be online. Especially if they decide to charge full tuition etc for a virtual education.
This is something that believers I work with and I discuss. While we all agree that God is in control, we also realize that we still need to do things in order to be successful.
It seems like the takeaway might be to acknowledge that the fact that God is in control allows us to make preparations, and plans, yet go forward without fear knowing that God has His own plans and that He's in control.
For some reason I keep getting comments directed to you.
If I said something that suggested that being prepared contradicts faith in a sovereign God, i misspoke since I believe no such thing. I just know that there are a lot of people out there, Christians among them, who are running around panicking because it looks so bleak and I wonder, "Where's your God now?" From the discussions I've had over the years from a wide gamut of Christians -- and I don't put that in quotes -- there are a lot of Christians that give lip service to God's Sovereignty without actually believing in it. I'm right there with you on that last sentence.
And I'd guess you're getting the scads of comments I delete from a source who has declared himself as lacking all integrity by continuing to comment after he said he would never do it again even though I don't post or read his comments. I'd guess it has to be frustrating for him, so you get the fallout. Sorry.
I don't think you said it, so much as I inferred it. I just wanted to clarify.
I'm sure there are plenty of christians who are running around freaking out and convinced that God abandoned them. At the same time there are plenty of christians who dismiss or deny the sovereignty of God, or who don't believe that God can or will intervene in this world. Both of those move me to sadness. The fact that someone "believes" in a God that would abandon them to troubles, or that God can't or won't intervene on behalf of His children, makes me wonder what exactly they've found worthy of belief.
I suspect that you are correct.
What you two say suggests they aren't really Christian except in name. I don't know that we're taught any of that by Scripture. I don't worry so much about whether or God can or will intervene as much as assume He does all the time whether I can perceive His Hand in things or not. I assume my job is to live in a manner as pleasing to Him as possible and He'll handle the rest.
There is a depository for comments by the aforementioned source...two in fact, though one was his own and lacking visitors he closed it completely. The other is clearly none of us who have been forced to hold him to a different standard by his own hand.
I believe there are genuine Christians who hold to the "sovereignty of God" without holding it in the highest sense. I've heard lots of people whom I believe to be Christians who argue that God "sovereignly limited Himself." So, they say, they still believe in a sovereign God. I find it irrational, but I don't chalk it up to false faith.
I agree. I definitely think there are people who are Christians, but who might not be fully onboard with a Biblical concept of God’s sovereignty.
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