Uncertain Times

I'm not sure if you'd heard or not, but our country is in the midst of an economic recession. I don't pretend to understand it, but I've read enough about it to have formed my own opinion about it. It seems that most of it started with the real estate bubble which burst, resulting in incredible rates of foreclosure, which then resulted in the failure of several major banks, and was compounded by $5/gallon gasoline for a time. The end result of all this is that people are scared to spend their money on major purchases. Unfortunately, when we don't spend money on cars or on house, the people who assemble our cars and their components, and the people who build and/or sell and/or finance our houses find themselves out of work and as a nation we see our unemployment rate start to rise. It's a vicious cycle that just feeds on itself.

Right now things at my plant are slow. We had only a few lines running last week due to customer orders being down...which is caused by dealers having 6 months worth on cars on the lots right now. We hear rumors of our sister plants taking pay cuts...taking cuts in hours worked...taking extreme measures to cut costs in order to make it through this tough time as healthy as possible. My company is proud to "never had a layoff" and I don't think we'll see one now. But either way, lean times have fallen on my employer and I think less opulent times are ahead for it's employees...including me.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry too much about this. Of course, I do worry more than I should....but I don't have to. My hope is not in an industry...it's not in a company...and thankfully it's not in myself. I am very thankful to be able to go into work today and every day that they let me from this point on, but, of men, I am most miserable if my hope lies in this world only.

Take a moment to read Psalm 42 today. It's only 11 verses, but we see a man who is in prison or some other lonely place...being kept company only by those who mock him. But in the end, his own soul cries out to him...calling him back from his own wilderness...to remember his hope lies in his God.

May my hope be only in Christ and the glory of the cross.