Is the recession hitting you?

Let me do a six-months-later check-in.  It was perhaps six months ago that the prospect of a serious recession hit most of our screens, and we commented on it on this blog then and a few times since.  I’m curious if you (or those you love) are feeling the effects of it in any particular way, and, if so, what you’ve learned as you’ve responded to it. 

On the one hand, our family still has food on the table and our church still stands.  On the other hand, our one significant investment in the market—college funds for our kids—got hit as hard as the rest of the market.  One day I found myself praying and saying to God, “Well, there are worse things than not being able to go to a relatively expensive college…or, if it gets worse, to college at all.  You’ve done great things through many people who haven’t been to college.” And I felt God interrupt me to suggest a different formulation, namely that I invite God personally to send my kids to their ideal college—or lack thereof—and let God sort out the means by which that could happen. 

That helped me understand yet again the trickiness of my experience of faith.  Oh yes, I thought, I’m depending on God for all things, including my kids’ futures.  When their college funds were heftier, evidently my faith could drift that direction.  When the funds are leaner, that option falters. 

This week’s Time Magazine includes lots of interviews with folks about their experience of the recession, and it throws lots of poll numbers our way about how Americans are thinking about it.  Their summary article ends on a surprisingly graceful note.

No one wishes for hardship. But as we pick through the economic rubble, we may find that our riches have buried our treasures. Money does not buy happiness; Scripture asserts this, research confirms it. Once you reach the median level of income, roughly $50,000 a year, wealth and contentment go their separate ways, and studies find that a millionaire is no more likely to be happy than someone earning one-twentieth as much. Now a third of people polled say they are spending more time with family and friends, and nearly four times as many people say their relations with their kids have gotten better during this crisis than say they have gotten worse.

A consumer culture invites us to want more than we can ever have; a culture of thrift invites us to be grateful for whatever we can get. So we pass the time by tending our gardens and patching our safety nets and debating whether, years from now, this season will be remembered for what we lost, or all that we found.

Have you been learning things during this recession?

Comments

[Jon]

I've been very aware that this recession was coming for maybe 4-5 years now and I'm still learning things. I moved out of stocks and all my assets in 05 and changed jobs to avoid what I thought was going to be a devastating impact to my previous employer's business model I was so sure about it. My previous employer is very close to bankruptcy and obviously stocks have taken a beating. I guess the biggest impact for me is the desire to be drawn in by all the bad news. There's so much of it and it is quite troubling to listen to.

I seriously hope that my feelings about where things are going are wrong but I feel like this could last for ten years and be much like the 1970s. That's sort of my sunny outlook on things. I'm also expecting the Dow to hit new lows after this rally is over. It's not really easy thinking that things for so many people I know are going to get worse for a long time still.

I'm not sure what God wants me to learn from all this. Even though this situation was obvious to me for years I feel like living in it is a totally different matter than just talking about what I thought was coming. This recession hasn't impacted me in any serious way financially but I still feel like it's taking its toll on me too.

[Stacey]

Well, my daughter is a synchronized skater and she has worked very hard, harder than I can barely imagine myself working at the age of 13, to participate and contribute to her sport. I'm just not sure there will be the money for her to do it next year. It might be the right thing, she will be a Freshman in high school and taking honors classes and may not have the time. But how do I know? This year was SO stressful, but we met wonderful people and she received such amazing support. How do I take that away? How does God? If I knew the lesson we were/are supposed to learn it would be so much easier.

[DJ Sybear]

I'm not a family man, I have no investments to speak of, just some debt, some skills, and a job.

I've seen four people laid-off from a staff of about 20 in the past three months. That's been hard: the work environment has gotten rather negative and the team dynamic that used to exist has been somewhat damaged. Thankfully, half those folks already had second jobs, and one more has found a new position elsewhere.

On my own terms, it's an unhappy balance. I've made some progress on the research side of my next career move, and have been doing a little networking. It's not beneficial for me to leave prematurely, though, much to my chagrin. Hope for me is twofold: basic day-to-day influence in my workplace to improve our experiences, and future prospects or interviews.

I won't let a pesky little recession deter my next career position.

Socially, it's been a mixed bag, but I think people I know are starting to shift towards more inventive, but cheaper options for entertainment. I expect I'll see more of that over the next six months.

[Peter Bierma]

Thanks everyone for sharing (really!). It gives me some perspective when I get to hear up close and personal how things are going.

I've been challenged greatly by the recession, but not because of any financial toll it took on me or my wife. Strangely enough, the business my wife owns and runs has expanded about three-fold in the last 6 months. When she felt God told her to change some specific aspects of the business, she did so, and then actually had to hire another employee to keep up with consumer demand.

The way I've personally been challenged has to do with -fear-. As the bad news (TV, internet, etc.) poured in, and then kept pouring in, and then KEPT pouring in, I noticed in myself a tendency to, if you will, "operate in fear". In other words, the processes that governed my decisions around money were fear-based, not freedom-based (which, being someone who is a big fan of the Bible, seems counter to what God wants for me). I'd say, "Who knows how long I'll have this? I'd better be very careful with all that I've got." And not that re-evaluating the budget was a bad way to go, but I felt like God said that he had something better in mind for me.

Not long after, I quickly noticed how there were other areas of my life where I operated in fear: namely, in my friendships. I could go into specifics here, but I'll digress.

So now my prayers have changed from, "Boy, I hope don't lose my money," to, "God, help me deal with this fear I have."

[Vinceation]

Peter, that's a very helpful comment for me. Thanks friend!

I had been avoiding the topic of finances in my prayer life for a long time until just last week when, with some loving baiting, a small group made me open up. My rationale for avoiding the topic was that I would not define myself in terms of social norms so, since I'd been loving other areas of my life, the worsening financial state my wife and I were finding ourselves in wouldn't bug me.

But really, I was just afraid to bring it up in prayer for a number of reasons, all with their own backstories. I feel like I'm at least letting God in to that place of fear now.

[Trish Ryan]

What a great quote! I've been struck by how I haven't missed some of the things I've cut out of our budget, and how much more I appreciate what we have. Sounds like SUCH a cliche, I know, but it's been a rather powerful experience.

[Jeff]

Interesting comments all. I have had an interesting experience praying about this.

I started, as would be expected, just praying for myself and my family, that our finances and jobs would be protected (which they have). From there I moved on to extended family, friends, especially those who have been laid off or the like, and then our church as whole.

As I prayed these prayers, I found myself realizing that I wasn't really hoping for blessing in any of these areas at the expense of others. And so I found my prayers getting broader- bless my city, my state, this country, other (especially poorer and more vulnerable!) countries- the world altogether.

Just to say, that while specific prayers are certainly excellent things, and probably the bread and butter of most prayer lives, I found that the recession has led me to pray prayers along the lines of "Bless everyone" in some ways that actually seemed meaningful and God-driven.