No one under the age of eighty can recall an economy that's been as bad as the one we're in right now. In the midst of these dire time, some financial analysts began searching for which companies might be thriving. Some of their findings were startling.
It turns out that Americans are increasing their purchases of soup. As the stock of other companies crashes, Campbell Soup is thriving. Maybe this isn't so surprising. Soup is a comforting and generally inexpensive treat. You can store most brands of soup for a long time. People around our office know I'm a long time fan of soup.
The other image is much darker. Sales of guns and ammunition are up 8-10%. It turns out Americans are increasingly worried about threats from their fellow humans. They've decided to arm themselves for protection against some imagined risk of rising crime. Their fear factor is soaring.
Loving caregivers know that there is only one effective way to deal with rising need amid scarce resources. Love is fed by the eternal spirit. For those who may have centered their lives on money, these are terrifying times. Even for the rest of us, we mourn the rising challenges that center around meeting basic needs.
Love, of course, is free. So is fear. But, as one great theologian once wrote, "love is free, but it's not cheap." Choosing love can feel expensive if love calls us to share our worldly goods with others.
It's one thing for rich folks to worry about affording a third or a fourth car or a second home. It's quite another picture for caregivers who wonder if they can hold onto the one car they have and whether they can sustain the payments to live in the one home or apartment they occupy.
In Nashville, I know caregivers who have had their cars repossessed and others who have lost their homes. Food banks here are strained and the one charity that shelters displaced families is in fragile financial shape. More emergencies loom.
The answer to these new threats does not, of course, lie in guns and bullets. Now is a time when those who have must dig deeper to help those who have not.
Love is never tested. Love never ends. But, we will be tested everyday on our ability to choose Love's pathway against the temptation to arm ourselves with the false security that comes from buying guns and hiding.
What do you think?
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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