I don’t know about you, but I am really fed up with all the bad news that continues to swarm out of Wall Street, Washington, D.C., cable news networks and those incessant, nattering Internet bloggers. Is the economy still bad? Yes. Is it likely to get better/worse? Yes (no). Can Washington do anything to make it better/worse? Maybe/definitely.
I am bemused and a little bit surprised by the reaction of most of the “experts” who cover the financial sector who struggle every day attempting to make sense out of what is going on in the financial markets and the overall economy. There is still plenty of uncertainty about what will happen next. Still, taken collectively, the general tone is not unlike the grand finale to the Broadway musical “ANNIE,” with everyone linking arms and belting out, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.” Pundits say things can’t get much worse, but that is not the same thing as starting to get better. Many people are already down to their bottom dollar and they don’t feel like singing.
The truth is, macro economies have lives and minds of their own, and they tend to be very unpredictable over any short-term period. Experts can observe and calculate and predict (guess) and recalculate. Governments and central banks can bluster and tinker and tweak and print money faster than Charmin makes toilet paper, but in the end, these things play themselves out through a process that only makes sense when historians study it after the fact, five or 10 years later.
In the meantime, no one can really control or predict what is going to happen tomorrow (yes, the sun will come out, but besides that …). President-elect Obama is riding a huge tidal wave of hope into Washington, but the challenges he faces are humongous. It seems to me that, regardless of which party is in control, government solutions tend to exacerbate problems at least as often as they help, even in the best of times. The new president needs our prayers, because the answers to most of these problems are above even his pay grade.
And I am tired of talking about ALL of this. It is just talk, anyhow, and it doesn’t lead to any real solutions. We have even less control over these forces than Wall Street or Washington. It is what it is, and a year from now we will be talking about something else, I hope. So, for now, what can we do?
Let’s go out and have a merry Christmas.
Maybe you don’t have as much money to spend this year as last year, or maybe you just don’t feel safe about spending it, but what does that have to do with making a merry Christmas anyhow? Get together with the people you love, do something nice for them and have a merry Christmas. You may have to serve Ripple and hot wings at your Christmas party this year instead of champagne and smoked salmon, but spend some time hanging out with your friends — that is where the real wealth is anyhow — and have a merry Christmas.
One of the best ways to combat the fear and confusion of this goofy economy is to turn off the television and go make Christmas merrier for someone else. There are several wonderful organizations working very hard to bring some Christmas cheer to disadvantaged children and families — Christmas is For Kids, Granite Shoals Christmas Outreach and the new Burnet County Santa’s Helpers program (replacing Brown Santa), to name just a few.
These organizations all need your help. Donations of money and toys would be nice, but they also need volunteers to help with wrapping, boxing and distributing gifts and food for Christmas. Make Christmas merrier for someone else, and have a merrier Christmas yourself.
Get off the couch and go to church. Being a local pastor, I will admit to a certain bias here, but you will be connected to the meaning of Christmas this time of year by going to church in a way that even beats sitting down with the whole family and watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” for the 20th time. Many churches are having special musical programs and worship services that will get you out of yourself and help you develop an eternal perspective on what is going on in the world, so check one out. You’ll have a merrier Christmas because of it. And don’t skip the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.
Honestly, you can have a wonderful Christmas, no matter what is happening on Wall Street or in Washington. Or anywhere else, for that matter. At times like this I am reminded of what happened during World War I on the fields of Flanders in Belgium on Christmas Eve, 1914. The German and Allied forces faced each other from 8-foot deep trenches, separated by just a few hundred yards. The ground was frozen and everyone was miserable. But it was still Christmas Eve. From somewhere, the German forces produced little Christmas trees, decorated with spare candles, and erected them along their trenches. Soon, the Allied Forces were startled to hear the unmistakable sounds of "Silent Night" wafting over from the other side as the Germans launched into a round of Christmas carols. Touched and curious, a few Allied soldiers crawled out of their trenches and crept closer to the German lines. Some even began to sing along. To make a long story short, the soldiers on both sides called an unofficial cease-fire — much to the dismay of the generals for both sides who were too far away to do anything about it — and met in the middle of the battlefield to celebrate Christmas. They swapped care packages, played soccer (Germany won 3-2), and had – for one brief moment – peace on Earth in the middle of the War to End All Wars.
That is the kind of power that Christmas has to drive back darkness and reconnect us to God’s light and love. Do you recall the very first words the angel delivered to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem? “Fear not.” (Luke 2:10a)
That’s the message we need to hear right now.
Maybe Christmas is getting here just in time.
English is pastor of Christ Redeemer Fellowship in Granite Shoals, as well as instructional design manager for Baker Communications Inc., a worldwide corporate training company with headquarters in Houston. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
