Banks Close, and its Ok

This will be quick as I have an appointment with some Richland County judges this morning (jury duty!). But, I wanted to toss out a couple of thoughts on why it is "OK" even when banks fail and the market dives.

1. Truth is better than a lie. The fact is our housing market (which includes the banks who made loans for it) has been a huge lie these last couple of decades. People have been living in houses that they could not afford... barely. They have been squeaking by barely making payments. Because of that the demand for higher priced houses increased, but it was a fictional demand presented by people who could not actually afford the houses they were attempting to buy. But, with some tricky financing and the willingness to let the new home owners go into debt in other places (credit cards anyone?) the banks made it happen! (Ironically the same banks often held the credit card debt for their homeowners... how nice of them.) This will be a difficult process, and it may take a few years to work its way out, but in the end it will hopefully make our housing market reflect the truth of the matter. And the truth is you should not be living in a $500,000 house if you make $50,000 a year. That is exactly the kind of thing that was happening in the markets that were hit the worst by the housing crash, and it was only a matter of when, not if.

2. The gospel reaches further in times of hardship than in times of blessing. I don't always like this truth, but it is a truth I cannot deny. History teaches us quite clearly that times of prosperity are some of the hardest times to reach people with the gospel, whereas times of hardship seem to make the harvest bountiful. We (NPCC) have been attempting to get our people ready for this type of economic situation for years now; teaching you to live below your means, set up emergency funds, and give thankfully to God. That allows us to be ready to meet needs during times of difficulty and to share God's love while we do it.

So, even if you are heavily invested in the stock market (like me!), don't worry... the stocks will come back up, and God will take care of us even if the banks fail. (And btw, all of the banks won't fail... some of them have prepared themselves for this day and will actually increase because of it. That is why we encourage people to prepare for difficult days before they arrive!)