Leadership Journal

During his time in a Nazi prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to his friend Eberhard Bethge that he was neither a pessimist (expecting things to get worse) nor an optimist (expecting things to get better). He said that he was living by hope.

Hope! One of three foundational forces—faith, hope, and love—that St. Paul said "remains" when everything else goes belly-up.

I find Bonheoffer's allusion to hope as an alternative to optimism or pessimism to be insightful and inspirational. He has identified a biblical idea that I think sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.

Bonhoeffer provokes me to take a new look at how I am evaluating things during this economic crisis as a Christ-follower and as an organizational leader.

Bonheoffer was writing about hope in a moment when his life was on the line. My (our) problems pale in comparison with his. In these days of financial meltdown, most of us have, at best, lost financially. Bonhoeffer lost his life … life on earth, anyway. But to the very end he defined reality in the context of hope.

In The New York Times this week is the story of one retired couple who have lost their life savings in the Bernie Madoff investment scandal. The husband says, "My whole life was wrapped up around that money. I thought I could pay the bills for the next ten years." One wonders what Bonheoffer's reaction to a quote like that would have been.

Like everyone else, I am aware of the financial precariousness of our nation and of our world. In no way do I blow it off.

I find myself unusually attentive to the up-tick or down-tick of economic indicators that I never cared about or understood a year ago. I am tempted to feel a bit better if the Dow is up and a little disappointed if the Dow is down. Like others I keep looking for the so-called "bottom" after which there is supposed to be a return to economic stability.

The comments of fiscal wizards (i.e. Bernanke, Greenspan, and Paulson) usually get my attention. What do they think? Shouldn't they have the answers? Can't they solve this problem? Nevertheless, it has not escaped me that they seem as confounded as the rest of us. Could it be that they are even more scared than we are because they know too much?

Hardly a day passes that I do not get caught up in conversations about the personal impact these economic conditions are having. I meet people who have lost their jobs, their homes, and their retirement savings. While attempting to care for them, I find myself tempted to wonder if their situation could become mine.

As the interim president of a seminary, I am highly aware that these economic ups and downs affect the lives of our students and our supporters. They determine whether my colleagues can follow through on strategies and plans in which we passionately believe. It's a spiritual battle some times. I have to continuously remind myself that my eye must first be upon God's purposes, not on the progress of stimulus packages.

Occasionally I assess my own financial situation. I muse on questions like: Will I be able to continue to generate income into the foreseeable future? How should I spend, save, and give away what I do earn? Will I be able to help our grandchildren pay their college expenses? What happens if there are unexpected medical costs down the road?

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