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Cultivating Calm

Signs of the Times:  Understanding the times, and knowing what to do in them.

Understanding
When the ocean suddenly went out at the 2004 tsunami, the wave was sure to follow. While many stood and stared, unmovable, a few screamed warnings and fled.

When the Western World became dependent on credit, the recession was sure to follow. A few who understood the signs screamed warnings, the rest of us were unmovable. We got comfort from the other unmovable people. But that didn’t stop the wave. They knew it was coming and it came.

Being able to recognise the times we are in, and respond, sounds simple. Yet most of us don’t do it. We react to the wave, trying desperately not to drown when it comes, rather than responding pre-emptively to the rip-current. One thing is for sure, we have to be able to think independently from the crowds around us. Laying on the beach next to them does not save us when the flood comes. There is not always safety in numbers. If there were, there would not be a global economic meltdown today.
 
Like the sons of Issachar, being able to understand the times releases the knowledge of what to do in time.

The Times
I traveled to India a few months after the tsunami and the destruction was overwhelming. The loss of homes and incomes was even more evident than it is today in the West. The cost to human life and family was devastating. We took in six orphaned children and began the process of loving them back to restoration. We created family; we would walk to the beach and make friends with the ocean that killed their parents and siblings. When they would get desperate and scream for their mothers, we held them tight, our shirts soaking up their pain. When they were angry with the world and wanted to jump off the 40ft roof, we positioned ourselves underneath them to break their fall. When they got sick we would cuddle them all day long. When they needed to remember they were kids, we would play games and be silly with them. When they forgot they were special we would take them out to dinner.

Today the recession has hit us all like a tsunami and left some devastated. We need to do everything we can to love each other back to restoration, care for each other practically, soak up each other’s tears and help break their fall. People that did everything right, have lost everything. People that were less than wise are now suffering. We need to do everything we can to help them through this season.

We also need to develop our own ‘early warning systems’ to prevent it from happening again. Every time we channel the pain of loss and disappointment into resolution for a solution, we turn the loss into success.

I remember back to when I was growing up. My parents only ever had one old car at a time, usually a Volvo or VW with enough space for all of us and the kitchen sink. We would take long driving tours in the summer. By the time I was a teen we had explored the whole of Western Europe. We had a great life. We had an awesome house, but old carpets. We had a huge back yard, but landscaped it all ourselves. We had great food, but it was all home-made. We loved to watch movies, but our TV was 20 years old. We biked everywhere in the summers, but our bikes were all second hand. We lived to the full, but we lived within our means; a concept alien to our bankrupt generation.

30 years ago in the US people saved on average 10% of their income. Now we have a -1% saving rate. We consistently spend more than we earn. It is normal to be getting into debt month-by-month, year-by-year. We are keeping up with the Jones’ and they are keeping up with us, all with money that none of us have. We have car payments instead of old Volvo’s, we have bigger houses and bigger mortgages, we have ‘needs’ instead of ‘wants’ and store cards with ludicrous interest rates. And all of it became our new normal. Things have changed and we stayed oblivious to the inevitable. J Boli writes:
“We must come to terms with the depth of the problem: we are dealing with a highly institutionalized economic religion that must be confronted on its own terms, and many of the cultural underpinnings of that religion are, I believe, sacred to us all.”
As nations we created our own economic instability. It has affected the flagrant and frugal alike. We all got caught up in collective consumerist credit. What was once a choice is now no longer a decision we can live with. We need to completely re-think how we do life for generations to come or the proverbial tsunami will be sure to follow once again.

Knowing What to Do
The results of economic down turn and recession have been widespread and painful. It has also changed the atmospheres of entire nations. Fear is never a good decision maker and fear mongering has never been our friend. The political world needs to be able to understand the times and know what to do, rather react with fear-based measures. We need to do the same. If you have important decisions to make, try to make them out of peace and not fear. Ships hold course in a storm to save them from getting lost in it. If possible, hold direction in the storm, or create enough calm to make a decision in.

When loss happens the way we approach it can dramatically affect how it affects us. A friend of mine, who has been through bankruptcy, does not fear this economic crisis at all. Finding the upside, has seen her through the hardest and darkest of times before. She told us how when they couldn’t afford electricity while the kids were small; she would play ‘camping’ with them in the dark. When my friends lost their businesses and their home, they realized that they had started with nothing and they could start again.

For more information check out Breathe who ‘inspire you to live a simpler, less consumerist, more thankful and more generous life’ and or sign up for their annual conference. 

In the mean time, peace.

Sarah Bainbridge is a vital part of the Living Generously team.  She liaises with Charities, writes articles and develops the team!  Sarah has spent time in India working with communities rebuilding their lives after the Tsunami and is currently living in Redding, California, where she attends Bethel ministry school. Her passion for God, life and laughing are infectious!



  

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