Unemployment

[My dad and I find ourselves in the same boat. His factory—Goodyear in Union City, Tennessee—is closing this year.]

The difficulties in life expose our hearts. When living comfortably, we can hide our sins and our idols from others and even from ourselves, but adversity brings all to light.

I first discovered this as a newlywed. As a single college-guy who lived alone, I had begun to believe that I was quite holy. If I were Wesleyan in my theology, then I probably would have believed that I had reached a state of “sinless perfection,” but as a Baptist, I knew better. I would give lip-service to my sinfulness, but in reality, I thought I was quite righteous. Then I got married. The little difficulties of marriage—of adjusting to a life that is no longer about “me” but “us”—quickly brought to the surface all the sin and all the little gods that I loved yet had kept hidden from everyone, including myself.

Unemployment—especially as a Gospel minister, a profession without unemployment benefits—tears away the thin facade that we can build around our lives. We may talk about our dependence upon God. We may give thanks at every meal and celebrate Thanksgiving with zeal, but until we are pressed by unemployment to truly pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we will not know how devoted we actually are to the god of Mammon.

Certainly, we all agree with Paul’s assessment, “For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10 KJV). But in our self-rightousness, we often look to Hollywood, Wall Street, and Washington to find such money-lovers while thinking that those of us on Main Street living paycheck-to-paycheck are immune from such greed. But what happens when the paychecks quit coming? Suddenly our own greed comes to the surface as we look at others with covetous eyes saying, “Why me? Why can’t I have their easy-life?” Unemployment reveals that we are no different than the actors, CEOs, and politicians. The evil that we express outwardly has only been limited by our inability to make the amount of money that they have. We are all worshiping Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image apart from God’s grace (cf. Dan 3). We are all evil in our flesh. The only difference is that some of us hide it better than others.

Our only means of escape from this condition is to devote ourselves completely to God. To worship him alone, and to truly pray when we pray—to express our utter, complete, and desperate dependence upon him. To learn the secret that Paul discloses in Philippians 4: Christ is enough.