Despair Factory Bailout

A family waits in the hospital for a doctor’s coat to approach with news. A wife wrestles with her distant husband’s addiction to bottles of all kinds. A man driving his 4-cylinder beater car sighs as he realizes that he has not actually filled up the tank in over a year. A man with a credit score of 705 contemplates if he should just let the house go. After all it’s worth $100,000 less than what he paid for it. Pastors of young vibrant new churches gather to figure out how to keep their doors open.  Taxpayers all over the nation are bracing for the fallout from the Fanny and Freddy default. Presidential candidates recite a nation’s despair, offer promises, and then ask for a vote.

 

            It seems just about every place one looks despair abounds. Its almost like in the cosmos a factory exists. This “Despair Factory” has an assembly line working over time to produce difficulties. Some difficulties are even customized. It seems like so many are in places of despair.

 

             Hindus call it Karma, while the Buddhists call it “The four passing sights”. What happens when our time of shock has past? How long will we savor the words “your fired”, “recession”, and “I’m pregnant”? In the west, Americans don’t reflect on despair, rather blame is assigned to everyone but the troubled. We find ways to relish in our misery. There are entire sections of daytime TV set aside to enjoying misery.

             

When trouble comes along people’s eyes glaze over and incapacity sets in. Any foreclosure defendant will attest the paralyzing effect of impending doom. What does it take to snap out of it? Where is the big restart button? What bailout is needed to bring hope back? Maybe the question is ”How can hope be used to bailout the Despair Factory?”

 

At the very basic level hope offers purpose to our struggle. Most often, hope offers a sense of better days ahead? Paying for next week’s gas and praying for healing asks hope for an immediate action.  Hope itself does not fill a gas tank nor does it heal. But hopeless place themselves at the end of the despair factory production line repeatedly. Hope offers reason and purpose to great struggle. Martin Luther held hope in the midst of huge struggle. Yes the original Martin Luther and Martin the King had at the core of their message purpose to their struggle. Hope fueled their drive for change. Don’t confuse hope with a campaign slogan or marketing piece. Hope naturally encourages action for those who have internalized it.

 

For believers in Christ we have a dualistic approach to hope.  We know that God makes Earthly provision. Believers also know that the calling of Christ has hope of salvation. Often the big picture of faith is lost in the details of the day. The wind blows and masses follow the dust it created. We know that troubles we face have greater implications. They fit into God’s greater picture. Even those things that seem meaningless, God weaves into the mosaics of our faith. There is a time for mourning. And there is a time for action. Let us weep with those who mourn.

 

Ironically, some believers respond to any adversity by looking for God to console rather than convict. Let us spur on those whose hope has been stolen by life’s circumstances. Some call it “putting on the big boy pants” while others call it “pushing the baby out of the nest”. So how do we snap out of it? Is it the bootstraps or surrender before God? Both. Dark clouds are momentary.

 

People who make it through great trials have some of the following traits. Setting aside the blinding effect of life’s trials will be the biggest challenge.  

 

·      Gain a realistic perspective of just how good or bad a situation is.

·      Stop talking about what you can’t do, start doing what you can do.

·      Essentualize-Get back to the basics.

·      Change your mind, starting with your tongue.  Speak the good, silence the negative. The tongue has power. It starts plenty of bar fights and secures many first dates.

·      Gain wise outside perspective. The kind that’s hard to hear, not blindly comforting.

·      Pray for God’s guidance on the tangible stuff: “Should I pay my rent or go to a movie?”