Perilous Times Primer #10

I Like the Depression

Recently, at the local farmers’ market here in Prescott Valley, Arizona, I found a book entitled, “We Had Everything But Money,” a book of memoirs from the Great Depression.  As I leafed through the book, I came to a section with the above title.  It appeared to me that the message in it is one we need to hear today.  I quote it in its entirety:
Editor’s Note:  After Sally Wall’s father died, she found this account, written in the early 1930s, of how his family got through the Depression in Texas. “I don’t remember much of this, but it must have been a delightful period in his life,” says Sally of Dallas, Oregon. “He was always jovial, as his story shows.”
I LIKE the Depression.
No more prosperity for me.  I have had more fun since the Depression started than I ever had in my life.  I had forgotten how to live, and what it meant to have real friends, and what it was like to eat common, everyday food.  Fact is, I was getting a little too high-hat.
It’s great to drop into a store and feel that you can spend an hour, or 2, or 3, or even half a day just visiting and not feel that you are wasting valuable time.
I like the Depression.
I am getting acquainted with my neighbors and following the biblical admonition to love them.  Some of them had been living next door to me for 3 years; now we butcher hogs together.
I like the Depression.
I haven’t been out to a party in 18 months.  My wife has dropped all her clubs, and I believe we are falling in love all over again.  I’m pretty well satisfied with my wife and I think I will keep her.
I am feeling better since the Depression.  I get more exercise because I walk to town, and a lot of folks who used to drive Cadillacs are walking with me.
I like the Depression.
I am getting real honest-to-goodness food now.  Three years ago we had filet of sole, crab Louie, and Swiss steak with flour gravy.  We had guinea hen and things called “gourmet” and “oriental.”  Now we eat sow bosom with the buttons still on it!
I like the Depression.
Three years ago I never had time to go to church.  I played checkers or baseball all day Sunday.  Besides, there wasn’t a preacher in Texas that could tell me anything.  Now I’m going to church regularly and never miss a Sunday. If this Depression keeps on, I will be going to prayer meetings before too long.
Oh, yes! I like the Depression!
In case any of you want to check it out on Amazon, the book “We Had Everything But Money” was published in 1992 by Reiman Publications, L.P. 5400 S. 60th St., Greendale WI 53129. The ISBN is 0-89821-099-2.
There are plenty of lessons in this book for us to ponder—not the least of which is that those “hard times” brought many to look for “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Tit 2:13-14).
For the child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, hard times offer golden opportunities to prove the faithfulness of God, the durability and tenacity of our faith, and to “redeem the time” and seize many opportunities to point men and women, boys and girls, to the Redeemer of mankind.  May we not fail to “profit” from this time, and to invest our “treasure” (2Co 4:7) in the hearts and souls of men, for a sure and certain “return” when we stand before our Lord and King!
In the riches of His grace,
Gene

 



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