Back in 2010, a banker friend of mine was writing off bad loans at the rate of $10 to $15 million per month. I understood why from watching what was happening around me. The shopping center nearest my house sold for $16 million in 2005. The owner went bankrupt during renovations and the bank took over. A new buyer came in at $6 million, but walked away when he realized existing tenants would move or go out of business if he raised their rents. The brand new shopping center across the street was half occupied, and there were three new centers within one mile that stood completely empty, so tenants had lots of inviting offers to accept if he demanded more from them.

The gym where I trained was located in an office/industrial park where more than half the buildings had been empty for several years. Their building owner was grateful to accommodate the gym’s growth by removing walls into two adjoining suites because they were the only tenants he had at that location.

The economy was in terrible shape in 2010. Conditions justified worrying a genuine depression like that of the 1930s might develop.

Every generation worries that it is on the edge of a death spiral, if not financially, then morally and spiritually. The reason is that we imagine the future in terms of the past. There is even Scripture to support this view… “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NSRV).

We worry about bad things spiraling out of control, but mostly life goes on. We keep skating successfully over thin ice. We collapse, but then we reorganize, and continue living much the same as ever. The bad judgment and mistakes of the past do not completely control the future. We make a mess, but then we start over again.

Two of my friends went bankrupt in 2010 after their real estate business went from boom to bust. They spent everything they made during the boom years and had no reserves when the money stopped flowing. So they held an estate sale. They moved out of their big house with an indoor pool into an apartment complex. They no longer vacationed in Barbados, but maintained their tans around the pool they now shared with neighbors.

The future holds more than the continuation of the present or the consequences of past behavior. We may experience consequences in the future, but we can be sure that the future holds much more than consequences.

The Hebrew people were living in exile in Babylonia in the sixth century B.C.E. as a consequence of their bad behavior. They were trapped in despair when this word came from the prophet Jeremiah, “The LORD says, ‘When Babylonia’s seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home. I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart. Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the LORD, have spoken’” (Jeremiah 29:10-14, GNB).

Our past contributes to the future, but so do all the resources of a gracious God.

 

A version of this post first appeared 19 June 2010 on TheologicalReflections.com.