Apparently 43 states are facing budget shortfalls due to the recent economic downturn. However, last Wednesday, the state governors had an opportunity to sit down with President-elect Obama & Vice President-elect Biden and air their woes. After perusing several newsites (a, b, c, d) one message stuck out: the governors want help from Washington with their budgetary woes. One estimate anticipates $176 billion.
Despite the unanimous gloss many of the reports are painting on the gubernatorial meeting, a brief mention is made of Mark Sanford (R-SC), who cuts against the grain. “We’ve been told over a number of months that this stimulus or that stimulus will turn the economy around, and they haven’t worked.” In fact I heard him interviewed by Bill Bennet’s radio-fill-in yesterday-morning. The federal government should “absolutely not” be picking up the budget short-falls of state governments, Sanford pointedly said. If individual families are required to make budgetary cuts during tough times, then why should government not also be forced to do likewise? “I believe (the states) ought to be free to spend their money however they like, but they ought not to ask the rest of us to pay for (their un-funded plans).”
On the surface this might seem very cruel and unusual punishment. After all the government is responsible taking care of the people … right? The first lesson anyone learns in Economics 101 is that man’s appetite is insatiable, while resources are limited. Economics is the discipline that seeks to study how man navigates allocating scarce resources among infinite needs, wants, and desires. In short, as daddy and mamma used to say, “Son, we don’t own a money tree in the backyard.” Sanford said that no one is denying reality of the pain in having to cut back on spending but the fact that money is not infinite is just as real. I was proud to call Gov. Sanford my governor yesterday … and today.
As believers who are serious about living the Word and doing real ministry in the real world, we can learn a lot from our present economic situation … and Gov. Sanford’s response to it. Yes, we might like to ignore the displeasure and ickiness of the real world effects of real world Sin. However, there will be no heavenly bailout coming to alleviate us from having to navigate Sin and its effects among the people we are called to live. Isolation and disengagement are not options for authentic believers. There are precious few easy answers. How easy was the Cross for Jesus? In considering outreach and ministry programs, human sin nature must be taken into consideration. Quick fixes simply will not do. Nor is real and authentic transformation of individuals, families, and communities easy or accomplished overnight. Did death, debilitation, and dysfunction happen overnight? No, there are precious few easy answers.
And yet … right slap, dab in the midst of Sin and its effects is where Jesus promised he would build his church. The boards he uses to do so are the splinters lodged in our backs from the crosses we daily own and bear, following him in the midst of the real world. While we are not promised a bailout from the natural, character-producing suffering that is part-and-parcel of engaging the world as ambassadors for Christ, we are promised to “always” be led in the victory of Jesus “everywhere.” Such is our inheritance as believers. Give me the very real and eternal victory of Jesus as my inheritance over some bailout from having to live in the real world … “always” and “everywhere.”
