It seems that we are having something of an autumn this year. In the past few years our winters have been so mild that the trees have held onto their leaves right up to December. It was good to walk through Epping Forest a few days ago and see all the wonderful colours of this side of the year. In some way the bright golds and oranges bring a much needed hint of colour to our darker and colder nights. In fact if we look hard enough we find that although autumn is more subtle than summer in its colour scheme it is no less intense. Think of the wonderful red hips of the rose bush or the berries that come out on many of our evergreens. Autumn is not as showy as summer but there is a real beauty about the season.
It reminds us that even in the mists of winter there are signs of colour and beauty. Perhaps we need cheering up given that the news has been so bleak over the past few weeks. Much of the news has been dominated by the financial crisis that seems to be sweeping the world, with the major world leaders attempting to put vast sums of money into the economy to stop a global recession. I suspect that like most people I feel completely powerless in a situation like this to know what to think or do. It reminds me that people other than myself can shape our destiny and that I can do nothing to control that. Even our democratically elected leaders are not in sole control of economies, others have the power. Like some dreadful house of cards world economies seem to be able to collapse and we onlookers can only watch as unimaginable sums of money seem to disappear. Stocks and shares, businesses, and land all lose their value overnight. What was once valued has now become valueless.
The problem is that the sums of money might be unimaginable but the effects of such an economic slump are all too real. People’s quality of life is at risk and not just us in the west. If we are feeling the pinch that means we cut back on our giving and those in most need in the world are the ones to suffer most. It will be the poorest countries in the world that will face the harshest realities of a world recession.
It is not surprising that we Christians will look to our faith to find meaning and answers to these issues. Not, as many suppose, as a crutch or magic formula to avoid disaster, but as a way of recognising that in the midst of our powerlessness we still need to seek for meaning in our lives.
Perhaps the meaning might be discovered not in what has lost its value but what still holds value in our lives. Christ said “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. We might want to ask ourselves where in our lives the things we really do treasure are. How can we best support them? I suspect that most of us would instantly recognise that it is our families and friends that we value the most, that it is those things that give us our greatest sense of meaning. Of course in the west we express our value for our loved ones by being able to spend money on them. Think of all that people spend at Christmas time, particularly on children. It might be harder to do that over the coming months if money is tighter? But that does not mean that we value our loved ones less.
If autumn is less showy than its neighbour summer, but no less beautiful, our love for those we value might be no less valued despite the fact it comes with our time, our attention, our patience which are much more costly commodities than anything money can buy.
John Brown