51% of the Fortune 500 companies began in a recession (according to the Kaufmann Foundation). This partly explains why Clayton Christsensen, a Harvard business school professor, has claimed that the recession “would have an unmitigated positive impact on innovation…The breakthrough innovations come when the tension is greatest and the resources are most limited. That’s when people are actually a lot more open to rethinking the fundamental way they do business.” In other words, scarcity can be an opportunity, a boon rather than a bane.
That’s a truth in the spiritual realm as well, and provides the flip side to yesterday’s post about the risk of catastrophic victory. There is the possibility of a blessed “defeat” for the Church or the Christian. We would not have Psalm 51 without David’s spiritual recession. We would not have Paul’s letters to the New Testament churches without their divisions and disasters.
I’ve seen churches lose half their members and prayer meetings come alive. I’ve seen pastors leave churches “in the lurch” but “coasting” elders transformed into leaders. I’ve seen Christians lose their income and grow in grace. I’ve seen Christians lose loved ones in tragic circumstances and grow in love to God. I’ve seen a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment find true freedom in Christ. Spiritual recession, scarcity and loss provide us with opportunity for spiritual breakthroughs and for fundamental re-thinking of our spiritual lives. How can you turn your defeat into a victory, your bane into a boon, your recession into prosperity?
Picture: 2006 © Michael Zysman. Image from BigStockPhoto.com