The Better Economy

Money is only a por­tion of the econ­omy. In the clas­sic def­i­n­i­tion, econ­omy has to do with every human and nat­ural inter­ac­tion. Say­ing “Good morn­ing!” is part of the human econ­omy. The same is true for every other con­ver­sa­tion. Good atti­tudes enrich every­one. The econ­omy is about inter­ac­tions. It varies from region to region. It fluc­tu­ates by mood and sea­son. If you observe nature closely, you see that it has numer­ous economies. The desert econ­omy of liv­ing things is dif­fer­ent than that in the swamp — but some­how along the same amaz­ing lines.
Jesus spoke of a “king­dom” or econ­omy that belonged to God. It too has to do with the way we do every­thing that we do. It works like the world’s economies in many ways, but very dif­fer­ently in other key modes. The trick to life is to pro­gres­sively func­tion in God’s econ­omy. His econ­omy is gen­er­ous yet respon­si­ble. It cel­e­brates the small­est things as well as the great­est. It trusts but never takes any­thing for granted. There is always enough in God’s econ­omy. For exam­ple, for rea­sons that can­not be explained, a boy’s lunch once became food for thou­sands — with many bas­kets of food left over. All it took was Jesus’ pres­ence.
The human inter­changes in God’s econ­omy are unusual. For­give­ness reigns. The other cheek is turned as an edu­ca­tion to the striker, and is a way of seek­ing his or her sal­va­tion. It is not masochis­tic, but it is sac­ri­fi­cial. It seeks the good in all, and is will­ing to pay the price of pain to make it hap­pen. Every life counts. The least impor­tant car­ries the most sig­nif­i­cance. Chil­dren are the instruc­tors. Wis­dom brings a smile rather than a smirk. The great­est is the ser­vant of all.
There is a say­ing in recov­ery cir­cles that goes like this: “In God’s econ­omy, noth­ing is lost.” It means that in our great­est fail­ures lie our great­est lessons. Our insights arise in the unex­pected. Our worst losses cre­ate our great­est spir­i­tual wealth. Our tragedies become our most pro­found edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ences. The most com­mon day becomes the most cher­ished trea­sure. Things we usu­ally ignore are things that deserve our great­est atten­tion. A sun­set is worth more than a man­sion.
Over the years, I have lived on var­i­ous lev­els of the mon­e­tary econ­omy. With an eye to God’s econ­omy, my lean­est years were my rich­est. When every­thing fell apart, my soul came together. God is right there no mat­ter what, and is ready to walk with you any­time you give up on the world’s econ­omy. Trust me on this one, his econ­omy has more than the national treasury.