Between the Dash
From 1929 to 1930 the average American income was cut in half. What a horrible turn of events that would be. They didn't call them the roaring '20s for no reason then came the stock market crash. The resulting economic depression lasted until WWII.
This 2020 pandemic has left many people destitute, unable to go to their jobs. And in the end many small businesses have lost everything. Adorable Cousin was telling me about this very scenario last year. I told her, "but how could this be, deary, our economy is booming and you can't just shut down an economy like this." I could see why they would want to do what they have but not how they could.
Now we can see both why and how. Historically speaking when depressions and economic set backs have come along the response of many has been to move back to their family farm, or at least to a more self-sustaining cheaper lifestyle. We have seen this within the long history of our country and as recently as within the last ten plus years. Many people, usually of a conservative bend, looking down the path and thinking things like 'this could go badly'.
We see the hurting of fellow citizens; we feel their pain, as well as our own. We also see the same thought in many who have been living in large cities, but looking around at their increase in crime in those cities they want out of those cities.
But the farming country has changed. We at one time had farms out here where the farmer gave up and moved on selling the farm land to ever larger farmers. Old Fuzzy and I during our raising of our family rented and lived in several of the houses that had been left by the farm families. Farmers were willing to rent those houses, but after being burned so to speak by so many of the "hippie" mindset—living out in the country, smoking their weed, and leaving a trashed out house/farmstead, farmers began to tear down the buildings and bulldoze the groves under.
Many other things have changed out here, some good some not so good. I'll leave you with some thoughts I gleaned from a fellow writer. He was addressing the idea that sometimes as writers we fail God. Hebrews the eleventh chapter is known as God's hall of fame chapter, wherein it highlights some of God's warriors. In the verses Hebrews 11:29-30 the Israelite nation was named once when they walked through the Red Sea as on dry land, and next when they walked around the walls of Jericho.
As the writer Joshua J. Masters pointed out the dash between 29 and 30 represents forty years of a wandering, whining, and complaining people. God forbid that we should be like that dash, but Mr. Masters ties it up with these thoughts:
Promises of God are anchored in his integrity not our own.
God’s promises are greater than our failures.
He fulfills His purpose in our weaknesses.
And His calling is stronger than our wanderings.
