On the nightly news hour, there’s lots of hoopla over the protesters gathering in American cities to raise awareness of the increasing gap between the rich and poor.
They have signs exposing the one per cent of comfortable rich who are becoming increasingly wealthier, while the remaining 99 per cent are the anxious because they are getting increasingly poorer.
Seems folks are finally realizing that the powers controlling the current economic system has rigged the rules so that the capital in capitalism flows only in one direction. Up to the top!
So, these protesters were hoping to mobilize the majority to recognize this fiasco and bring our political leaders into action, to bring some accountability to bear.
Well, a few weeks ago hope sprang eternal in New York when news erupted that “arrests were finally being made on Wall Street.” But alas, the wrong people were taken into custody. They came to arrest the protesters!
But the police left the Wall Street bankers to continue “rigging.” Yet, it’s these bankers whose criminal greed began the descent of many national economies to the brink of bankruptcy. And it was the bankers, not the victims, who were bailed out — with bonuses to boot!
Perhaps most unfortunate is that an anxious pall has blanketed the capitalist economy worldwide since it’s clear that these bankers and other multi-national corporations are still bending the rules for their own greed! Indeed, this greed and entitlement has trickled down from these mega corporations, even down to the grassroots. Everyone wants a bigger piece.
The current economy is grossly unjust; but envy and strife are not the way to peace — or happiness. Pursuing the god of wealth brings an anxiety that is truly unhealthy, since there is no way to know when there’s enough. Or, as Proverbs says, “just as your eyes light upon it, it is gone!”
More importantly, that anxiety draws you away from what is truly fulfilling, which is growing and blessing your own person or character by nurturing the relationships that God has gifted to you.
The Book of Matthew reveals that joy and peace arise when “your eyes light on Jesus.” He can equip you with a healthier outlook.
For the most part, pursuing money only increases our anxiety; for the more we have, the more there is to “be gone.”
However, true joy is found in actualizing the person that we are meant to be. We actualize our potential when the light of Jesus guides our interaction with significant others who can help us draw the best from our DNA.
As we nurture our personhood in deeper conversations with other maturing persons, it draws us toward human fulfilment — through closer communion with significant others, including God.
That’s how we enrich our well-being, our personal “capital,” so to speak, as well as enrich that of others, which continues to grow for all eternity.
It’s what Jesus called the “abundant life.” It’s a heritage that no one can erase, defame, or pronounce: “Be gone!”
Rev. Rolf Nosterud
Red Deer