How To Be Happy in a Recession

A few days ago, I wrote this about dealing spiritually with the economic crisis:

God or the Dow?

Another month passed already, and the economic crisis shows no signs of abating yet. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get used to feeling this low-level anxiety as a sort of backdrop to whatever else it is that I'm dealing with that day, which is, of course, always something, since life is a series of problems.

This crisis seems to be, for all of us, a unique type of constant spiritual challenge to "let go and let God." The economic problems we're currently experiencing are more serious and widespread than anything most of us have ever seen before, which gives rise to a totally unfamiliar psychic situation. The best way I can think of to describe it is to say that the fundamental economic security that we’ve always taken for granted is ours no longer. Our investment and retirement accounts seem to vanish before our very eyes, or at least to be mere houses of cards that topple at the drop of a pin, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

This helplessness, not only of ourselves individually but also of all of us collectively, including the experts, and the billionaires, and the leaders, and even all those cutting-edge business people in Japan and elsewhere, societies that are probably not past their economic peak the way America may be past its economic peak—anyway, the fact that none of these folks have a clue what to do either is what makes this particular crisis seem so utterly out of the reach of human control. Most other crises in the past have appeared to have some limitation to them, but not this one. It seems as omnipresent and as uncontrollable as the Flood.

Ah, the illusion of being in control! I’ve written elsewhere, in my book and probably in this blog as well, that the best thing that can happen to any of us is for us to realize that we’re not in control, that when we've thought we were in the past, it was an illusion. But now I see that although I was acting in accordance with this insight in most areas of my life—i.e., turning it all over to God and letting him help me with all of it—I was still, unconsciously, grounded in this fundamental economic security that we Americans have enjoyed pretty steadily since before I was born in 1956. Even though I had realized I wasn’t in control of most of the variables of my life, I nonetheless operated on the unconscious but huge assumption that the basics of the money system would stay the same. Of course, I occasionally had money problems and worries, but there was always that basic system to fall back on, where if you worked and did what you were supposed to do, you had both current money and retirement funds for more or less as long as you needed them. Now, however, we've lost that certainty. We don't know if our investments and 401K’s are going to hold out or not, because we know for a fact that they can shrink dramatically even as we speak, and that no one knows how to stop the shrinkage. We can no longer take for granted that basic system, or our own earning power, or job security, or even our very employability, if we were to have to look for new work. We are definitely not in control.

In my book, I write about how I wanted things and asked God for them, and in a later spiritual stage I found myself wanting things for others, so then I would ask God for those as well, but now, I find myself wanting—in the sense, that is, of feeling almost physically hollowed out by the absence of that basic security. I'm constantly grasping for it, only to feel it slip through my fingers with every new drop of the Dow. First I wanted, then I wanted for others, now I am wanting, I am lacking. It doesn’t feel good.

Another thing I find myself falling prey to is being teased by the market whenever it comes back one day and not only gets into positive territory but actually makes big gains, only to lose it all the next hour or the next session or the next week.

But, thank the Lord, the solution to all of this vacillation and all of this worry is the same as for all other kinds of worry:

BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

For sure, it's hard to do in this climate of near-panic, but we can do it now if we've done it before, and if we've never done it, we can learn to do it. The only difference is that now, more of us see more clearly than ever how utterly dependent on God we are, since we can’t even rely on that old familiar system of money and work and basic economic well-being. If only, instead of despairing, we will truly turn to God through meditation, prayer, deep relaxation of both body and mind, or even the "groanings too deep for words" of the Holy Spirit, and ask God to help us and show us what to do and guide us and keep us and continue to love us, which we know he will do because that’s what Jesus said, then we can find peace of mind and, eventually, the complete joy of God’s abundance and bounty, where no one has to concern themselves with money ever again!

In short, where most of us, myself included, used to depend on that fundamental economic security, now that that's been pulled out from under us, so that we know our dependence on it was a mistake, maybe we’ll finally come to realize, more deeply than ever before, that God is the only sure foundation for us to build on or lean on!

I confess, though, that even when I've made up my mind to adhere to the discipline of choosing this foundation over and over, during the workday I often find myself peeking at the market readings that are so neatly tucked into the corner of my internet homepage--hey, I didn't put them there, they did! Anyway, I find myself peeking, & if the market happens to be up at that moment, I breathe a sigh of relief, and if it happens to be down, I say to myself, "Of course it's still down, the bailout & other measures haven't had time to work yet; things will be better, but not yet." But the point is that WHATEVER is happening with the market, now or at any other time (and indeed, whatever is happening with the world, period!), if we want to be truly grounded and positioned to receive real joy, we've got to be resting in God instead of in the worldly things. In God's love & reassurance & promise & hope. And it's always up to US, every minute of every day, to put ourselves there. It's that simple: God or the Dow?

God or the Dow, part 2:

One more thing that can help us deal with the uncertainty is simply to get out there and do the best we can to help others, including those less fortunate than we are, instead of feeling that the crisis gives us an excuse not to concern ourselves with them. No matter what our personal situation may be, there are millions worse off than we are, including those who've lost their jobs or their homes, or both. There may also be many who are not worse off financially than we are, but who may be having an extra hard time dealing with things, and may need us for that reason.

That old secret of God's still works: we will feel better if we do things for others rather than sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves or worrying about the future. Healing (salvation, if you will, as explained in the post "Salvation as salve instead of forgiveness," April 2008 archive)--healing comes not from seeking our own healing but from being an agent of healing for others.

Also, I hope none of us decide not to donate as much as we normally would during this holiday season. Believe me, I understand the impulse to tighten our belts, but if we can just keep up our giving this year, the hurting world surely will be the better off for it, and, who knows, maybe by the following Christmas, this nightmare will be nothing but a distant memory.

God bless all who read this!
Sara