Monday Morning, September 22, 2008
You may not have heard about the perfect storm that blew through the coastline of our economic system this week, unless you read the newspaper or watched cable or listened to the radio or tuned in the Evening News. The headlines are everywhere. Some called it “9/11 of Wall Street.” Others, the Tsunami of Manhattan. Or the Katrina visited upon our Banking System.
For most of us, especially out here on the West Coast, it’s theoretical. Abstract. We see it in the decline in value of our portfolios. We watch the drop in value of our homes as comps show up on the board. But as long as our jobs remain intact, life pretty much goes on. Without the headlines and the shell-shocked talking heads to stir us up, we might not even realize how calamitous the whole thing could be.
But the dreadful metaphors employed by politicians and public spokespersons are unsettling, to say the least. You may have heard the names Freddy and Fanny and AIG before this month. Few of us had any real comprehension about how any of those draconian-sized financial institutions impact our lives, that is, before last week. We remember the “tech bubble” that burst the first year of the current millennium. We recall the market slide that followed the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And we knew the skyrocketing climb of the price of housing would someday end. But none of us imagined the mess that would require a massive, trillion dollar government bail-out to keep the entire system from tumbling irretrievably over the precipice.
Do we simply sigh in relief? Or do we fasten our seatbelts for more turbulence yet to come? Whatever we once thought of as “security” has been seriously called into question. It’s as though all of us, in so many ways, are starting over.
Our pastor called upon a one hundred forty-five year old quote that seemed remarkably relevant. The President got a directive from the United States Senate in the spring of 1863. He readily complied. Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of a catastrophic civil war, was asked to pen a Presidential Proclamation, setting aside a National Day of Prayer. His language is as powerful as the paragraphs he penciled in preparation for his brief speech at Gettysburg. Lincoln’s verbal skills were honed in the long debates with Douglas, and now from the White House, in the heady deliberations with the most powerful leaders in the world. The stresses could not have been more intense. The risks hanging in the balance, more enormous.
The proclamation appeared in every newspaper in the country. Here’s some of what he wrote -
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
As I listened to Matthew read Lincoln’s words on Sunday morning, I was struck by how far we’ve come from those fundamental roots that once anchored our souls. What might happen if we were somehow gripped by that same sense of the majesty of God; and humbly confessed our ready participation in a chase for wealth and power that has left us empty and fearful?
Lincoln went on…
And I do hereby request all the People to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
What if our President, or either of the two in hot pursuit of the Office, expressed the same sentiment? With the same core of sincerity and humility? Would the Senate concur? The apparent answer to these hypothetical questions is a sad commentary indeed.
One thing we do know, the Day of Prayer on April 30, 1863 did not bring an end to the fighting. It went on for two more awful, bloody years.
But somehow, on this Monday morning, as we leaders contemplate the consequences of bad debt and soaring costs and an uncertain future, maybe it’s time to get on our knees.
And pray.
Copyright Kenneth E Kemp, 2008
Ken:
Thank you and your pastor for reminding us from Pres. Lincoln’s comments that the Creator is sovereign and can and will intervene in the affairs of state. Let us pray together that His will be done in the difficult days and decisions ahead.
George Giacumakis
So True. Thanks for this reminder of our need to be diligent in prayer for our respective countries, and for our neighbours. Blessings.
Bruce
I just finished a prayer time before reading your weekly message. During the time I was praying I was so burdened for our nation, our leaders and those serving in our military.
It was indeed reassuring to read your commentary and know others have been concerned and continue to care and pray for our Christian cause.
How refreshing, Ken, to be reminded of a simple truth in frustrating and somewhat scary times … pause, pray and trust.
Thank you for this website. I read it every week.
Coincidentally I have been teaching my seniors Canterbury Tales, specifically the Pardoner’s Tale. If you haven’t read it let me summarize. In the tale the Pardoner’s (yep, that’s right he makes his living selling “pardons”) favorite Latin catch phrase is “Radix malorem est cupidatis,” loosely translated meaning “The love of money is the root of all evil.” His story, ironically, centers on the danger of unchecked greed even though he is overwhelmingly guilty of the same greed he instructs others to eschew.
We discussed that it doesn’t say MONEY is the root of all evil, just the love of it. We also discussed the absurd lengths humans will go to when greed is involved. I was reminded of the verse, “…he who loves money has money never enough…” How prescient the timing given the absurd levels of greed displayed this week on Wall Street. We have witnessed bankers – who should have known better than to loan people money who had little to no ability to repay- humbled . A classic head shaker, to be sure. One can only hope that Lincoln’s words will be revisited due to their searing clarity and wisdom!
These are words that both encourage and challenge us, Ken. Thanks for the energy you faithfully spend in helping us give thought to our troubled times.
Lincoln loved and encouraged his country, quoting Jesus frequently. If asked about the statement, “If a house is divided against itself,that house cannot stand,” that statement is often attributed to Lincoln rather than Jesus. Of course Christ was talking about Satan, but perhaps LIncoln was too. Biblical truths generate visionary wisdom. Imagine a country with such leadership! God Bless America. Thanks, Ken. You always make me think (or cry). Blessings to all….