Editorial: Are we ready for a tighter near term?

In human terms, 2022 is going to be a challenging year on several fronts. Christians need to remind themselves: We are human, but we mustn’t face the challenges before us on human terms. Following Christ means we face them on God’s terms.

We’ve been under considerable and mounting pressure for two years. Indications are it’s about to get tighter, and not just financially. We will feel increasing pressure in almost every sphere of life, including physical, emotional and spiritual. Are we ready?

The state of things

Money often is the first thing to come to mind when we talk about tightening, because tightening invariably involves money. Also, money is easy to quantify; we have a sense of knowing what we’re dealing with if we know how much it will cost. Other things seem far more abstract and open-ended.

In the near term, money is going to get tighter. The financial pressures we’ve faced the last two years are likely to persist, if not worsen. The December 2021 spike in inflation—the fastest climb since 1982—has the Federal Reserve planning to raise interest rates “soon.” This likely will have a cascading effect on other areas of the economy—including investment portfolios.

Not only do we face the prospect of higher interest rates in the near term, we also face increased costs of goods and services, if we can even find the goods and services we’re looking for.

Inflation isn’t just a matter of increased costs. It’s also a matter of causation. Supply chain woes and labor shortages are a significant cause of current inflation. There’s less of what we want and fewer people to get it to us. This points to the deeper problem of inflation. It’s not the money; it’s the human cost.

One cause of labor shortages is the so-called “Great Resignation” seemingly caused by increased stress in the workplace paired, in some cases, with insufficient wages. Teachers, medical personnel, retail employees and other essential workers often have had their stress compounded during the last two years by an unappreciative and irate public. Staff still on the job are taking on extra work, along with the additional stress and pressure, sometimes without receiving additional pay.

In short, labor and supply woes are compounded beyond the money and aren’t likely to settle out in the near term. Until they do settle out, we will experience more tightening in the economy and workforce. And we may also feel more tightening in our chest or jaw.

We’re all affected by COVID in some way, even if we haven’t been infected, don’t have lingering symptoms, or haven’t lost a loved one to the virus. We also may have lost someone to something other than COVID. Even so, funeral homes are overwhelmed, so that COVID is affecting even the grieving process. The pressure isn’t just on our money; it’s also pressing on our hearts, minds and souls.

Broader pressures loom, including the upcoming midterm elections in the United States with its accompanying political tension, as well as the current concern over Russia and Ukraine, which will exacerbate global pressure if armed conflict breaks out. This is to say nothing about the other multiform pressures on nations and peoples all over the world.

Why all of this matters

We know all of this; so, why am I rehearsing it here? Because we need to pay attention to how all these pressures not only are tightening our material reserves; they also are tightening our human reserves—our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual margins—which are thin and evaporating, making it more difficult for us to navigate these pressures under our own strength and with kindness and civility.

These pressures won’t just affect the world out there; they will affect us as churches. They already are. Just ask your pastor.

As much as we want the pressure to ease, as ready as we are for relief, we need to ready ourselves for the opposite in the near term. In human terms, this is not what we want to hear; we’re already at or past our breaking point. But remember, we mustn’t face the near term on human terms.

Human terms—not in total, but in large measure—brought us to this point. It’s time for the church, of all people, to give up operating on human terms and to turn wholeheartedly to God’s terms.

Part of what this looks like is dropping the notion that being American is the pinnacle of human existence and exempts Americans, and especially American Christians, from travail.

As we address questions about what’s going to happen with our schools, our government, our courts, our jobs, our families, our churches and so much more, we need to learn from our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world who have lived with multiform pressures greater and longer than anything we know directly.

While they are no more perfect than we are, they do have much to teach us. They can teach us how to live on God’s terms when government is fractured, when the economy is in ruins, when the social fabric is past frayed and is rending in two. Thankfully, we’re not at that point.

They can teach us living by faith when sickness is everywhere, and physical relief is nowhere in sight. Thankfully, we’re not at that point, either.

They can teach us how to follow Jesus against the flow of a culture thoroughly antithetical to him. We may know more about a culture at odds with us, the church, than a culture at odds with Jesus.

Another part of facing the near term on God’s terms is to acknowledge our ways tend to get us into more of the kind of pressure we are facing than they tend to get us out of it. Said another way: we must face the near term and beyond by humbling ourselves before God.

Yes, 2022 is going to be a challenging year on several fronts. Christians, we need to remind ourselves: We are human, but we mustn’t face the challenges before us on human terms. Following Christ means we face them on God’s terms. Are we ready?

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com or on Twitter at @EricBlackBSP. The views expressed are those solely of the author.