This article first appeared in the fall 2009 issue of EFCA Today magazine. Used with permission.
Reading the Wall Street Journal these days, I have been thinking a lot about one of my favorite nursery rhymes, “Humpty Dumpty.” In the midst of a severe economic recession, there is a collective sense that the Humpty Dumpty economic world we once knew and loved has had a great fall, and no one really knows how to put it back together again. But could Humpty Dumpty’s great fall be a great opportunity?
Though I won’t minimize the very real pain of our present economic difficulty, is it possible that the bursting of our economic bubble allows us to see a gaping hole in our theology and a blind spot in our leadership?
As our congregation has worked its way through the Book of Acts, my heart and mind have been gripped as never before by the relevancy of Paul’s farewell words to local church leaders at Ephesus.
I had always seen Paul’s strong emphasis on preserving doctrinal purity. But I had not grasped the depths of his impassioned plea for local church generosity. In this letter, Paul builds to a Spirit-filled crescendo, saying, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).
Jesus’ words are not some nice-sounding, religious gibberish, nor by quoting them is Paul advocating a feel-good, prosperity gospel. Jesus and Paul both knew a transforming theological truth: When we embrace lifestyles of joyful generosity—even in times of economic difficulty—we experience the rich blessing of living as we were meant to live.
Quite simply, we were created to be generous—made in the image of a God who first generously created the world (Genesis 1:27). Only our corrupted nature is selfish. Our new-creation life in Christ restores our true generous nature. So nothing is more antithetical to a biblical view of human flourishing than selfishness; nothing is spiritually more unnatural. Yet in our world—where the norm is to see people through the lens of self-preservation—selfishness seems natural, even necessary.
The question is, “By what nature are we living? What nature is guiding our behavior and our day-to-day decisions?” (Romans 7, 8).
Selfishness isn’t something new to the human condition. Living generously was not easy for the early church either. The apostle Paul had to urge believers at Corinth to remember this theological truth: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8, New American Standard).
Now is not the time to hunker down in fear, but to stand up with compassionate hearts and open hands. In this Humpty Dumpty economy, are we buying into an unbiblical scarcity mentality? Are we seeking refuge in our own economic self-preservation?
If so, then our theology is missing the mark, we are hobbling along with a joyless leadership limp, and our anxious congregations are missing the rich blessings of joyful generosity.
In these challenging economic times, let’s teach God’s people how they were created to live.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
