歷史學者回顧美國這一年，會認為是一場金融海嘯。成千上萬的住屋法拍，無數人破產或失去工作。美國政府好像也競相揚棄資本主義的基本原理，砸錢給銀行、投資公司、大保險公司，企圖恢復市場信心，並且遏止資金流動。
在這段極其動盪不安的時間，有個星期全球股票市場狂跌七兆美金，我接到《時代雜誌》(Times) 編輯的電話，問我說：「您寫過關於禱告的書。請問，在這樣的危機中要如何禱告呢？」談話間，我提到禱告的三個階段。
第一個階段是簡單、直覺性的呼求「救命啊！」面對裁員、健康問題，或是眼睜睜看著退休金縮水，禱告是這些人發出恐慌與焦慮呼聲的一個途徑。我一直學習克制自己想要修飾禱告，好聽起來更成熟更優美的習性。我相信上帝希望我們以真實原貌來到祂面前，不論自己感覺多麼幼稚。知道每一隻麻雀掉落的上帝，當然知道驚恐的金融危機會帶給脆弱人類什麼樣的衝擊。
其實，禱告是我們交託恐懼的最佳去處。我以耶穌在客西馬尼園的夜晚，作為在難關中禱告的典範。祂三次倒在地上，汗珠像血滴，感覺「憂傷到要死。」然而，在痛苦掙扎之際，祂的禱告從「將這杯挪去」轉為「照你的意思成就。」在接下來的受審場景，耶穌是座中最平靜的人。祂的禱告時刻使祂解除焦慮，重新肯定對慈愛天父的信靠，並且有勇氣面對即臨的慘劇。
如果我禱告的時候同時傾訴並且聆聽，就能夠進入禱告的第二個階段，亦即默想與反思的階段。嗯，我的畢生積蓄就這麼沒了，那麼我從這場災禍體會到什麼呢？看這些財經新聞，有一首兒童詩歌不斷浮現於腦海：
那聰明人把房子蓋起來…
那聰明人把房子蓋在堅固磐石上。
那愚笨人把房子蓋起來…
那愚笨人把房子蓋在鬆鬆沙土上。
危機時刻是個好機會，審視自己究竟以什麼根基建構自己的人生。如果我覺得金錢保障或是政府有能力解決問題最可靠，結果當然是眼看地下室淹水，或是牆垣倒塌。
我在芝加哥的朋友比爾․萊斯里 (Bill Leslie) 以前常說，聖經就金錢發出三個主要問題：(1) 你是怎麼賺來的 (合法公正？還是剝削得利？)；(2) 你用來作什麼 ？(奢華宴樂？還是幫助窮人？)；(3) 對你起什麼作用？耶穌有些最犀利的比喻就是直探最後一個問題的核心。
當分析家在金融廢墟中揀拾殘餘，他們開始擦拭一些塵封的過時字眼：貪婪、中庸、誠信、正直。當作總裁的犧牲員工與股東來填滿自己的荷包，當銀行明知不太可能還錢卻借貸，當貸款的人利用善意的合約逍遙法外，金融體系就崩塌了。一個發揮功能的經濟體是以微弱的誠信網脈所維繫 (如果你有所懷疑，不妨去一個送紅包才能辦事，買東西找錢馬上要數清楚的國家去看看。)
全球財富縮減了七兆美元的那個星期，辛巴威的通貨膨脹率高達兩千三百一十萬的百分比。換句話說，你如果禮拜一還有一百萬辛幣存款，禮拜二就只剩下一塊五毛八！這個凝重的現實讓我想到在難關中禱告的最後，也是最困難的階段，就是我需要上帝幫助，眼目從自己的問題轉移，才能以憐憫關注那些真正赤貧的人。
耶穌教導我們禱告「願祢的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上」，而我們知道天上沒有無家可歸、窮苦或挨餓的人。當股票市場墜入未知的深淵，我不由自主地想起私立大學、宣教機構、以及其他非營利組織，它們都極其倚重捐助人的慷慨解囊。
如果在這一年，基督徒能捐助更多，為窮人蓋房子、與非洲的愛滋病抗爭、向一個耽溺、唯名人是從的文化社會宣揚天國的價值觀，會是何等美好的見證。這樣的反應有違一切邏輯與常識――除非，我們認真看待主耶穌講的把房子建在磐石上的簡單故事中的寓意。 | .. | Historians will look at the year that just ended as a financial tsunami that left in its wake millions of foreclosed homes, bankruptcies, and lost jobs. As if competing to abandon the basic tenets of capitalism, governments threw money at banks, investment companies, and huge insurers in an attempt to restore trust and stanch the flow of capital.
During one of the most volatile periods, a week in which global stock markets declined by $7 trillion, I received a call from an editor at Time. "You wrote a book on prayer, right?" he said. "Tell me, how should a person pray during a crisis like this?" In the course of the conversation, we came up with a three-stage approach to prayer.
The first stage is simple, an instinctive cry: "Help!" For someone who faces a job cut or health crisis or watches retirement savings wither away, prayer offers a way to voice fear and anxiety. I have learned to resist the tendency to edit my prayers so that they sound sophisticated and mature. I believe God wants us to come exactly as we are, no matter how childlike we may feel. A God aware of every sparrow that falls surely knows the impact of scary financial times on frail human beings.
Indeed, prayer provides the best possible place to take our fears. As a template for prayers in crisis, I look at Jesus' night in Gethsemane. He threw himself on the ground three times, sweat falling from his body like drops of blood, and felt "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." In the midst of that anguish, however, his prayer changed from "Take this cup from me" to "May your will be done." In the scenes of trial that followed, Jesus was the calmest character present. His season of prayer had relieved him of anxiety, reaffirmed his trust in a loving Father, and emboldened him to face the horror that awaited.
If I pray with the intent to listen as well as talk, I can enter into a second stage, that of meditation and reflection. Okay, my life savings has virtually disappeared. What can I learn from this seeming catastrophe? In the midst of the financial news, a Sunday school song kept running through my mind:
The wise man built his house upon the rock …
And the wise man's house stood firm.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand …
Oh, the rain came down, and the floods came up.
A time of crisis presents a good opportunity to identify the foundation on which I construct my life. If I place my ultimate trust in financial security or in the government's ability to solve my problems, I will surely watch the basement flood and the walls crumble.
A friend from Chicago, Bill Leslie, used to say that the Bible asks three main questions about money: (1) How did you get it? (Legally and justly or exploitatively?); (2) What are you doing with it? (Indulging in luxuries or helping the needy?); and (3) What is it doing to you? Some of Jesus' most trenchant parables and sayings go straight to the heart of that last question.
As analysts began picking through the ruins of the financial collapse, they started dusting off old-fashioned words: greed, moderation, integrity, and trust. When executives line their pockets at the expense of employees and shareholders, when banks make speculative loans with little likelihood of payback, when borrowers walk away from good-faith contracts, the system collapses. A functioning economy is held together by a thin web of trust. (If you doubt that, visit a country where you have to pay bribes to get action and must count your change after every purchase.)
The same week that global wealth shrank by $7 trillion, Zimbabwe's inflation rate hit a record 231 million percent. In other words, if you had saved $1 million Zimbabwean dollars by Monday, on Tuesday it was worth $158. This sobering fact leads me to the third and most difficult stage of prayer in crisis: I need God's help in taking my eyes off my own problems in order to look with compassion on the truly desperate.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and we know that heaven will include no homeless, destitute, or starving people. As the stock market dove to uncharted depths, I couldn't help thinking of private colleges, mission agencies, and other nonprofits, all of which depend heavily on the largesse of donors.
What a testimony it would be if, in 2009, Christians resolved to increase their giving to build houses for the poor, combat AIDS in Africa, and announce kingdom values to a decadent, celebrity-driven culture. Such a response defies all logic and common sense — unless, of course, we take seriously the moral of Jesus' simple tale about building houses on a sure foundation. |
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