The Insolence of Office

There are a couple different meanings which this line in Hamlet could take on. I'm going to play with it a little though, because I recently lost a potential job due to stupid people in high places making stupid decisions to which they themselves are immune and from the effects of which they are insulated.

It is a struggle for me in this life to determine the appropriate course of action. Too many variables in an increasingly larger web of relationships debilitates me to the extent that I become apathetic toward it all. Let's take the Boston Tea Party, for instance. Was this a justified course of action? Granted, there was oppression of taxation with the only cause being the greed of king George III. The British government was continuously placing more and more taxes upon the colonists until, fed up with it, they revolted.

This may seem to you, as it does to me, warranted, but I get stuck thinking of the Biblical implications of this action. Many of those who revolted in Colonial America called themselves Christians, Bible-believers, and yet (this is where it gets personal for me) God never promised a life of ease, and in fact when it came to taxation, He instructed, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesars." This is all fine and good so long as it doesn't affect me, but then it did.

I was offered a job and was to start that job this week. My financial woes were finally behind me and I was able to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Turns out I am in a cave and it was just some lightening bugs. You see, the business I was to begin working for just closed out its fiscal year and was in the process of going through books when it encountered a problem, more taxes. This company made less last year than it had in the past, but coincidentally owes an extra $20,000.00 in taxes. This $20,000.00 is the same that had been saved to put toward hiring another account representative. Thanks to the Federal Government however, it will now be spent to fund new schools for some senator's reprobate kid to go to because he is too special for public school.

This is the rub, the Federal government loves to impose taxes in the name of "Unemployment funds" or "Bailouts for businesses" or "Helping people buy a homes," but the reality is that if they continue to tax small businesses and citizens, there will be no more businesses to pay that unemployment fund or to employ people, nor will there be citizens gainfully employed to buy houses and pay for the business bailouts. It is a filthy cycle in which I find myself, currently, smack dab center.

So where does this cycle end. I am sure I don't have an answer for that, I am not a senator's son. What I do know is that I would have had a job were it not for heavier small business taxes this year. But I am not really here to complain, I am here to uplift, for in this reality there must be a silver, or more likely a golden, lining.

Looking back over prior posts this morning I happened upon a verse from Ecclesiastes, "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (7:14). Now that's some hard stuff to swallow. There is a plan here, I know there is, I just don't know what it is just yet. I know my God and I know that he is a God of redemption, a God that saves the day! Whether it is the salvation of my soul, or the salvation of my apparent helplessness in life. The one thing I know is that someday, when this life is swept into the past and timelessness becomes reality, on that day when I look him in the face, I will forever forget these trivial problems and be swept away in the foreverness and infinity that is God, whether I know and understand or not.

Hope beyond Hopelessness

--This blog was originally written for an industry audience, so kindly disregard strange references. --

As I sit here drinking coffee and pondering the state of the great USA, my mind turns to contemplate where I will be by the summer of 2009. Let's be honest, it's a brutal market out there with over 6% of the country looking for work, national giga-corporations sinking without even a flare to fire for help, and the latest, the "3 Big Ones" GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler begging for a bailout. I work in construction and construction in the Treasure Valley has taken a nose-dive, racing headlong toward destruction. Here in Idaho we have the 15th highest forclosure rate in the nation, which means market saturation of homes. For my homebuilder counterparts I feel your pain. They say that commercial construction is still strong here, though I have to say that I can't see it.

What I can see is a few years of hard work, careful management, and hope. And that is the key, when it comes down to it for most of us, hope is the binding factor. Hope is what drives the economy. Hope is what gives confidence to the American consumer and hope is what we must hold on to when all is lost. Earlier this month we held an election in which the people of America spoke, raised men to office and made critical decisions. In a way, America said as a collective whole, "This group of men holds the answer to the question of hope." Let's hope that we did the right thing. Let's hope that the American will once again gain the confidence that they need through the hope they have elected.

Politics aside though, I think that there are bigger and greater things to be tackled. I got out of bed this morning and made my way to my office, got my coffee and proceeded to take care of the business of the day. As I did, a funny thing happened, the sun rose. You know, I remember the sun rising yesterday and the day before and before that, the sun rose. Makes me wonder what will happen tomorrow. As I think about this, it occurs to me, "Zach, why do you think it is so odd, that if you should get up every day, the sun wouldn't?" Will Obama get out of bed tomorrow? Probably. Will the sun rise because he tells it to? Absolutely not. The sun will rise, but at no humans urging. The sun will rise, because the sun's job is to do just that. Now back to hope. Where is it? In whom is it placed? In what?

This is an important question in the economy at large today. We have called the American dollar the "Almighty Dollar," raised it up to diestic status and put our hope in it. But what happens when it crashes as it is doing now. We all sit and watch and hope that with enough quantity of Dollars, we can pull through. Let me ask you though, does the sun rise because of the dollar?

With the looming economic crisis I have an opportunity for a greater choice. I have the opportunity to hope in something far greater than Dollars, than politicians, than giga-corporations, I have the opportunity to live on hope in the transcendental, that which is beyond all. I see the sun rise in the morning and am reminded, there is something beyond: a hope beyond hope, beyond hoplessness. The question is whether I will take that hope, or the hope that one more bailout will fix everything, one more G-20 meeting will solve the worlds problems.

What would a world look like where hope-beyond-hope reigned free? I can't answer that question, I won't even speculate. What I can say for myself is that it makes building another building a whole lot less significant. It reminds me just how shallow my hope is; I am humbled.

"When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other." -Ecclesiastes 7:14

My wife told me the other day, "You know, when you look at the world and try to find the value in every circumstance, you really can't have a bad day." So true, if I try to learn from these troublesome times we are in, even in them I can have good days, simply for rejoicing in what I am learning from them. Lessons like, "Be a wise steward of what you have," and "Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." Good reminders that taking care of others, giving to them serves only to lay up treasure for the day of famine.

Could I lose everything in this troublesome time? Well that depends on what is mine. If what has been given to me is not mine to have, but to care for for a time, then I have nothing to lose...ever.

Can I take my own medicine? Can I move a position and see the beauty in the ashes? Or will I instead allow myself to sink deeper into the muck of self-pity? I fear for myself that it may be the latter. I have hope though. I have hope. Until next time, keep watching the sunrise!