The Coming Economic Crunch. Take Care of One Another. OK?

“It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.”--President Harry S. Truman

Here’s the thing. 

We are going to get through it. Of that I am absolutely sure. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again. It’s just going to be tough for a while before the sun comes out on the other side.

I’m talking about the bumpy (maybe very bumpy) economic times that more than likely are lying ahead for the United States and probably the rest of the world too. For you and for me, in large and small ways. We’ve already gotten personal jolts and confirmations indicating that current economic conditions are out of whack, especially since the beginning of the year, when the stock market began to crater and then to fall by more than 20 percent from its high point. Then the beginning of the war in Ukraine in March pushed the economic bells and whistles and alarms, especially when it comes to energy. Since then, gas, oil, and electricity have spiked in cost and gone sky high.

How much is it for a loaf of bread? A pound of hamburger? To fill my oil tank? For a GALLON OF GAS!! In late June when topping off my gas tank topped off at more than $60, I knew we were all in new economic territory. Most of us have not experienced a significant rise in prices (aka inflation) in more than a generation. Last time the cost of goods and services rose this fast and this high was 1981, when inflation peaked at 9.8 percent. That’s forty-one years ago! Right now, inflation is running at 8.3 percent annually.

Now well into my seventh decade I ’ve been through and yes, survived, several economic roller coaster rides.  The time when I was in elementary school and my dad was out of work for 18 months.  We stayed warm, dry, and fed and always cared for by my parents who did all they could for us kids, but I still remember eating surplus peanut butter and cheese, courtesy of Uncle Sam and the Department of Agriculture.  One summer in college the only job I could find was a second shift job at a hospital, washing and waxing floors, wrestling a behemoth of an unwieldy contraption and all for barely above minimum wage. No other jobs were to be found. But there was always just enough money for beer and pizza.

There was the dot.com boom and then bust in 2000. The great financial meltdown of 2008 was the most severe, widespread, and prolonged downturn I’ve ever witnessed. I will never, ever forget it. Seemingly overnight, trillions in accumulated wealth (at least on paper) came crashing down.  From 2007 to 2009 when “The Great Recession” finally ended, the stock market lost $8 trillion in value. That’s with a “t”! Americans lost nearly $10 trillion in wealth as home values fell and retirement accounts plummeted. Venerable longtime financial institutions like Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns went out of business.

It was a scary time.

And then we emerged from it. That “Great Recession” gave way to one of the greatest economic recoveries in history. Now the pendulum is ready to swing the other way again.  Hold on to your seats. And your perspective too. 

That’s what the gift of my faith gives to me in the midst of anxiety producing times in life like an economic downturn.  Perspective. So, I try and remember each day to be thankful that I’ve got a place to live and food to eat and a job that brings me deep spiritual satisfaction and provides for my needs and then some.  I have people who love me and whom I get to love right back. I have a circle of friends that is the best a guy could ever hope for in all the world.  

Perspective: to also remember that I have a relationship with a God who is always there. For me. For the world. For the hurting. Through good times. Bad times. All times. My prayer for all people, especially when the economy is tumbling, and wallet worries increase is that they too would know some power greater than themselves that can see them through. 

We’ll get through this.

So long as we watch out for each other too. There is a good chance more people will lose their jobs in the months ahead and find it harder and harder to make ends meet. They’ll struggle to pay their bills and feed their kids and heat their homes. That’s when our work kicks in as their neighbors and friends and fellow citizens. Faith and plain old human decency compel us, I pray, to show compassion, mercy, and generosity at all times, but especially in hard times.

We’ll emerge one day from the economic winds of challenge. It will just take some time to get there.  In the meantime?

God bless us all.

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.