If you’re like me, you’ve been watching the news and stocks as we witness history in the making.  Yesterday, after the House defeated the bailout plan from the Senate, the DOW Jones Industrial Average fell 777 points, the largest one day fall in its history.  Economically speaking, we are in the middle of a major turning point in our country, and our world.  The days of unfettered spending and reckless, limitless greed are numbered.

The national debt hangs at about 9.3 TRILLION dollars.  I’m no economic expert, but even I understand that’s a big, hairy problem.  I can’t even type that number out on a normal calculator!  US families aren’t much better; and now that teens can hold credit cards in their name, they are graduating HIGH SCHOOL with an average of $6,000 dollars in debt.  What a way to start a life!

Trina and I left college in debt.  School loans were sold to us like a bottle of snake oil.  Trina talks about how signing her name on that first “financial aid” package was a major negative turning point in her relationship with God.  What sounded like “aid” before our college days now sounds more like “bondage” and “debt.”

Around the time I graduated in May, we had some friends point us to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  We listened to all the sessions during our long move from Texas to Chicago, although we had begun to learn some of the principles while in Abilene.

Ramsey describes his plan as, “Giving you the same financial advice your grandmother would, (only we keep our teeth in).”  His main goal - help people live within their means, and climb out of debt.  Through sort of a baby step process, he gives couples, churches, and businesses steps out of the insanity of credit, mortgages, car leases, and much of the monstrosity that comes from living on the thin wire of excessive debt.  He was against the $700 billion dollar bail-out, and after hearing from both sides of the issue, I side with Ramsey.  The market will course correct - we are not headed for the Great Depression Part 2.  The Government in the ’30’s developed the FDIC to secure banking deposits - there is more regulation over private banks (and doubtless there will be more in the near future because of this mess).

What is more likely to happen is that banks will not be able to sell 30 year no-money-down mortgages for families looking to buy a mansion they can’t afford.  Along with that, it will be tougher for people to be approved for credit cards or car leases that they have no business applying for in the first place.  Businesses and banks will have to reel in their liquidity rates that resemble some sense of sanity, while other banks and institutions will undoubtedly continue to fail, the wise will survive.

We are not moving into the Great Depression, we are entering “The Great Moderation.“  This is the time when Cash is King - pull out some envelopes and follow a budget.  Save money, don’t spend it.  Live simply, give generously.  This is a time when the whole nation may begin to heal from its drunken hubris.  Followers of Christ can learn much from their earliest brothers and sisters - “who shared their possessions, and had everything in common, and not a needy person could be found among them.” (Acts 2)

This is not the end of Capitalism, but in this age we must think about a Creative Capitalism that doesn’t only reward a few and neglect millions more.  Do what V-8 Juice is doing, giving away fresh produce to the working poor with some of the profits they make on their nutrition drinks.  Or do what Ethos Water does, putting many of their proceeds on bottled water toward water-well development in Africa.  Or do what the first century Christians did, in sharing a common purse.  Health insurance would be a lot simpler if you were paying into a pot shared by others who actually care about you and worship Christ with you on Sundays.

We as a nation are learning from our mistakes - many of them were lessons already learned during the ’30’s - we can not live beyond what God has given us.

…Give us TODAY our DAILY bread.

We should find people of great influence in our peer group and in our discipline and listen to them. Because they differ slightly from us, these people sharpen us. Sometimes they are achieving such greatness that we feel a drip of depression looming in our seeming lack of accomplishment. But that only remains when we focus on our accomplishments or lack thereof.

Many would call this sort of activity “self-centered.” I contend that it is probably not “self-centered” enough. Perhaps we need to go even deeper into searching ourselves - we need to search inside of ourselves to find the still small voice instructing us. This voice trumps all external, peer-reviewed comparison. It says, “Keep running the race” and “fight the good fight” and “I will give you rest.” Man, I love that still small voice.

Stumbled across the Cottage Company today, and was intrigued by some of their architectural projects focused on the social as well as the physical. They have been around since at least 1995, and specialize in something called “pocket neighborhoods.” I believe these will be an important piece for future developments as the world moves away from a car-centric economy.

When I first saw Ross Chapin’s designs of the 5 little houses (750-900 square feet) circling an open garden space, it made me think of the TV show LOST - a little neighborhood village once owned by the workers of the Dharma Initiative, now called “New Otherton”. I have to admit, I was a little confused at who might want to live in such a Walt Disney world. But as I read through this article, I began to see the benefits of having your own space, and yet sharing common space.

Each neighborhood is set up in caldisac/bungalo court fashion (but the pavement is replaced with low fences, vegetable and flower gardens, and a playground for the kids), with 6-8 homes all facing the common area.

There is less inside space, which means people are on front porches more. It also means owning less - like this guy and his 100-Thing challenge. There is no garage door for people to sneak home in their SUVs and shut behind them. A lot of the privatization inherent in owning your own home today is taken away, but there is still plenty of private space - for instance, the bedrooms/bathrooms are facing away from the common area, but the living rooms are positioned towards it.

This kind of life is nothing new - monasteries have been designing communities like this since at least the 5th century, and maybe even further back. It speaks to the rhythms of life - the need for privacy, and the need for community.

I think America could benefit from seeing this new kind of “mini-suburb” pop up all across the landscape. Its much smaller and cheaper housing (which helps in the sub-prime mortgage woes), it offers instant babysitter opportunities, more locally grown food (savings and taste abound), and those who already live in one of these dozen or so communities across the country is that their need for privacy is not violated, and that their sense of security and safety has dramatically increased!

Community is not all bliss and no woe - we learned a lot about communal living when my wife and I moved into an Abbey about two years ago, only to move out 8 months later. Still, we wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, and I think it gives us yet another picture of how to make friends in a tragically lonely America.

What are your honest thoughts about this? I’d love to hear more perspectives on potential pitfalls and unique opportunities. Who out there is attempting anything like this? Give us your insight.

Like any discipline, some of the pitfalls of painting don’t emerge (or become recognizable) until after one takes the risk of continued practice. One of the greatest lessons I’ve been learning in painting is to take confidence in the simplicity of a single stroke – to appreciate what one simple stroke can accomplish and communicate. (The painting here is a study of Mark from a couple of weeks ago.)

Just because a stroke is simple doesn’t mean the painting comes out as simplistic. The simplicity of each stroke actually adds great interest to the painting. Now, I think a little bit longer before I throw paint on the canvas because I want to be intentional. And rightly so – a stroke remains packed with substance: placement, direction, color, consistency, texture, value, size, and relationship to other strokes…

Before I did a lot of trial and error painting. If any of you have ever tried oil painting, you know that the paint takes an incredibly long time to dry! So while the paint is still wet, if the artist meddles in the strokes, the painting becomes muddy and difficult to appreciate. I have killed many pieces this way – out of insecurity and in search of perfection.

But my search was misguided. Even though I may not see what the painting will be as a finished piece, I have to trust the process. I let go and force myself to trust something that I cannot see. And a visual product emerges. It’s such a weird yet satisfying experience.

I just recently found the Reba Place Fellowship’s website online.  They are a community of about 35 up in Rogers Park and Evanston (in the midst of Chicago’s north side neighborhoods).  Holding a common treasury, and selling all they have to join the community - they are forever taken care of by the community and given a chance to live life together.

Onlookers watch as families work less, live more, and love more.  By sharing resources, they aren’t playing into the most fundamental element of capitalism: that we compete for resources at the expense of our souls.

I wish I had a video to embed right in this post; but its an RAM file, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to lay it into my blog.  So - here’s a link to the video - a expose from a public Chicago: Money Matters news show exploring what sounds to me like, “Good News”.

 Click here for the video.