The Bank of England is considering negative interest rates. The UK’s credit rating has slipped. Surely this is further evidence that the banking system is broken and that the government has run out of levers to pull to stimulate the economy? The government has bailed out the banks, and now wants the banks to bail out the government! Maybe now is the time to start to think about the real issues and the real solution.
When Saint Paul wrote 2000 years ago about the triple qualities of ‘faith, hope and love’ he probably was not thinking about solutions to a triple dip recession, but maybe there is an application right now?
There is plenty of cash in the world economy. The problem is that those with the cash are hesitating about investing. It is all about confidence in where the economy is going, and confidence is based on trust, which is really faith. Those with faith are the ones who are investing and starting new ventures.
The world is increasingly filled with insecurity about the future. People and economic markets, whether investors or consumer spending are depressed about the outlook. Those with hope are able to operate with a different kind of liberty and sense of vision. Those with a Biblical framework for understanding the world can see their own place and purpose without anxiety. The people of hope can give others hope. In a world awash with hopelessness, the currency of the future is hope.
We can have great confidence (faith) for the days we are in, and sure-footed steps for the future (hope) but all of this can only be held together if we have authentic relationships. Investors want to know the people they are investing in. Workers want to be treated as people with families and friends. Businesses need to be part of communities. Much of this has been lost in our age of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ replacing community. Investors and workers have lost touch with each other. Families seem disconnected from the stockholders. The glue we need to help us stick together is love. When we have meaningful relationships, trust seems to develop and our thinking is guided with hope.
The principles of faith, hope and love are timeless, and truly are at the heart of what our society and economy needs. More than the cheap alternatives of political correctness, diversity and equality.
Paul gave us profound wisdom:
Three things remain: Faith , hope and love. The greatest of these is love.
It really is time for those with faith, hope and love to step forward. All three are required at the same time.
Tags: Biblical truth for the markets, Christian Business thinking, faith hope and love
John D Manwell's Blog 
March 9, 2013 at 9:52 pm |
I firmly believe we need to revisit 2007 and look at what was missed when everybody wanted to celebrate the abolition of the ‘evil trade’, but did not repent for the British having become the undisputed masters of the trade in the century before. The British/Anglosaxon modern trade, finance (London) and international trading relations were originally founded on the backs of enslaved Africans.
When it finally came to an end in 1833, huge compensations were paid to slave owners, but never yet to enslaved people themselves or their descendants. See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
And once we have started here, the relations between the tribes and peoples in these isles need redeeming and healing. It is in King Edward I actions against the Welsh, the Jews and the Scottish that the ‘spirit of empire’ had its pre-modern prelude before going global in Tudor times.
No repentance may come at the cost of God bringing the British Isles all the way back into the ‘dark ages’ politically and economically.
The millenium act of repentance is why Liverpool holds a ‘key of redemption’ for the whole of the British Isles. I wonder whether only when the nation – as in Liverpool, the Church, politics and education – can there be a restoration of wealth to this nation. Is that the ‘narrow way’ for the land of the isles, as a nation and as a kingdom into the Kingdom? Revival is currently happening as the salvation of individuals in the midst of God bringing the nation low. But maybe more could be possible?