A mischievous friend once advised me, “always ask for forgiveness, not permission.” It was his way of justifying some of his adventurous antics that sometimes came at the (small) expense of local property owners. Don’t let trifle rules stifle a wild idea.
How many of us desire something strongly, but, if we think about it, have never asked for it from the Father? I have written in these pages about a blind man who, after being led to Jesus for healing, heard Jesus say to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” That questions was, I think, Jesus’ way of telling the man, “I want you to ask me to satisfy your deepest longing.” Within the asking would come spiritual, psychological healing, and a commencement of seeking the Creator.
I just finished reviewing Ha-Joon Chang’s “Bad Samaritans,” a book that argues for more state-control of business, particularly international commerce. Although Professor Chang means well, in that he desires better and more equal wealth creation spread around the world, I disagree with most of his arguments. (Professor Chang is a world-renowned economist whose advice is sought by organizations such as the World Bank. I don’t pretend to understand economic theory at his level, or to have the broad knowledge base in world commerce that he has. But I do have some real-life experience of starting, building, and operating a business. And that is a realm of experience that he does not have, as far as I know).
I picked up the book because I have been asking myself recently, if China’s communistic regime is so stifling to business, why do they have the second largest economy in the world? Can we chalk up all their success to their very large population? Do I need to rethink the merits of limited government and free markets, two concepts I believe in very strongly (though both have significant insufficiencies, they are the best working models in the world)?
While in Kenya last week, I saw Kenyan men driving gigantic red Chinese-company labeled dump trucks, and Chinese foremen overseeing the works. I was witnessing what I had read about: direct Chinese involvement in Kenyan infrastructure, particularly road building.
It is good for Kenya in the short-run, I think. They need better roads, quickly, as their population surges. But it may be bad for Kenya in the long-run, when the Chinese firms will control the exchange of goods up and down the Kenyan highway map. Private enterprise may never have invested in Kenyan roads, for many reasons, but perhaps predominantly because private firms need more immediate investment returns. I suspect road-building is a 10-15 year return. Is state-run and directed investment better than private in this instance? Chang argues that it is, and I agree with him.
Let’s bring this line of thinking around to end-of-life care. The Kenyans, Chinese, and Americans, in the realm of economics, are all after the same goal: wealth creation. It is a good thing to desire, particularly when it lifts human beings out of poverty, and the depression and other diseases that accompany poverty. How many conversations in the business world speak of God’s provision, or requesting the Lord’s guidance and blessing?
I hesitate to ask the Father to bless our business. I don’t want to obligate God for anything, particularly wealth. And I loathe the prosperity gospel message, which tries to tell me that if I lead a good life and give to God, He will bless me financially and in other ways. The way of Jesus is the cross, and he asks me to follow Him.
You won’t hear one of our hospice patients petitioning the Father for more wealth. Our patients settle for things of much greater substance. Getting up close with their deaths, humans filter out so much of the junk they once held sacrosanct. They are after peace with God and man.
I spent a half-hour with one of our patients recently. He suffers from end-stage heart disease, is long past his working/productive days, but is in other ways doing pretty well. He sat on an old couch, in a small wood house, listening and watching with a small content smile on his face. He answered a few questions. But mostly he was silent, not talking away as if he needed to prove something to me. He smiled more when his wife talked. Perhaps he was grateful that the bride of his youth was still loving him 60 years later, and during his sick days.
He probably picked up on my type-A, hard-pressing personality, and was glad that he didn’t have the strain and push that he saw in my life. I hope he prayed for me. I know he did. I felt the peace of the Lord in that house, the house of a praying man.
Jesus tells us to ask Him for the bread that endures to eternal life. He asks us to drink the water from which, after drinking, we are never again thirsty. These currents run deep, traversing under the realms of business, world economics, and hospice care. I do not know what you really long for, reader. Perhaps it is the restoration of a relationship, or it may be the lifting of guilt. But I do know that He wants you to ask Him to satisfy whatever is that deep longing in your heart.
