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WORK, UNEMPLOYMENT AND MONEY

Work is a mixed blessing for some, but unemployment is invariably a curse. A job of work gives value to our lives and a framework to our days. It also gives us the financial security to enjoy our leisure time and to share our relative good fortune with others, as well as to know we can afford housing, holidays and hospitality.

Unemployment, on the other hand, is a dispiriting and often demeaning experience which undermines morale and can set off a spiral of decline. Life becomes difficult for everyone. We can become scratchy and irritable. Bills mount up and motivation sinks. We are poor company and may suffer low-level depression. Unemployment is bad news for the economy, for communities, for families and for individuals.

Even for those in work, the reality can be stressful and the grind of work can be enervating. The sense of being under pressure pervades society.

Prayer is no quick fix. Prayer does, however, introduce a new dimension to the unwelcome, lumpy experience of stressful work and unemployment. It provides a different back-lighting to the unpredictability of working life, a different screen-saver to our thinking. Prayer is essentially an attitude, a comprehensive way of looking at life in the light of God.

And its most common fruit is hope.

HARD TIMES

Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in major economic and financial readjustments – even global recession – and the price is paid by the employee and the homeowner, the young person looking for a first job and the middle-aged people who find they are too old to be wanted. How, then, shall we pray?

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me;

you know my sitting down and my rising up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You mark out my journeys and my resting place

and are acquainted with all my ways . . .

Where can I go then from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence? . . .

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

your right hand hold me fast.

Psalm 139.1–3,7,9–10

Lord God, we live in disturbing days:

across the world

prices rise, debts increase,

banks collapse, jobs are taken away,

and fragile security is under threat.

Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:

be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,

and a light in the darkness;

help us receive your gift of peace,

and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Church of England

You Lord are in this place,

your presence fills it,

your presence is peace.

You Lord are in my life,

your presence fills it,

your presence is peace.

You Lord are in the storm,

your presence fills it,

your presence is peace.

David Adam

‘Redundant’ – the word says it all –

‘Useless, unnecessary,

without purpose, surplus to requirements.’

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that in the middle of

the sadness, the anger,

the uncertainty, the pain,

I can talk to you.

Hear me as I cry out in confusion,

help me to think clearly,

and calm my soul.

As life carries on,

may I know your presence with me

each and every day.

And as I look to the future,

help me to look for fresh opportunities, for new

directions.

Guide me by your Spirit,

and show me your path,

through Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.

Church of England

God of the world, Guide of the nations,

we lay down before you the sorrows and inadequacies

of our economic and social systems.

We have trusted in credit and financial fairy tales;

we have set the markets free and watched them fail;

we have built our house on sand.

Teach us, we pray, the ancient wisdom of our faith,

that love of money for its own sake is fatal,

that debt is a snare and a delusion,

that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.

So may we seek the better way

of honesty, humility and accountability

in the Kingdom we pray will come on earth,

as it is in heaven.

O God of comfort and challenge

whose presence is ever reliable

and ever unexpected:

grant us to grieve over what is ending

without falling into despair

and to enter our new vocation

without forgetting your voice,

through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Janet Morley

MONEY WORRIES

The first place we are hit in troubled economic times is in the pocket. Debt has become a way of life for millions of credit-card holders, for students taking out loans, for parents wanting the best for their children. But then we get caught.

God of power,

you are strong to save

and you never fail those who trust in you.

Keep under your protection

all who suffer as a result of debt:

help them through their time of darkness,

give wisdom to all who seek to help,

and bring them to know true freedom

in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Church of England

Gracious God,

you know our need of money.

‘Times are hard’, they say,

but harder for some than others,

harder for us, in fact.

The mortgage, the supermarket, the heating,

the car, the insurance, the council tax,

the family, the TV, the odd meal out . . .

I don’t ask you for money (how could I?)

but I do ask you for more patience than I‘ve got

and more grace than I find in my frustrated soul.

Ease your way back into my life, I pray,

and restore my sense of perspective and purpose,

for Jesus’ sake, and for mine.

Lord, I’m anxious about money –

there’s no getting away from it.

Please keep me sensible,

clear my head,

give me new ideas,

and help me trust in you.

Gracious God,

the world belongs to you

but we struggle to make it work.

The world’s wealth is shared so unequally;

the injustice of it cries to the heavens.

Although money may be in short supply

in these hard times,

keep us in mind of the even larger problems

of the world’s poor.

May our problems make us sensitive to their

problems, and their problems remind us

of our need for one another

and for you.

WORKING AT GOD’S PACE

Working life has never been more relentless for many people. The human cost of overwork, combined with stress at home and the frenetic pace of twenty-first-century existence, takes many people to the edge. That’s when we need to ease back and ask ourselves more prayerful questions.

Living God,

when I am tired and cross and despairing,

distracted by many thoughts,

eaten up by multiple demands,

and hungry for your peace;

help me to offer again

the five loaves and two fishes

that you have given me,

and so discover again

the miracle of the strength

that comes in sharing everything

when we have nothing –

except Jesus Christ our Lord.

Julie M. Hulme

Lord, you put twenty-four hours in a day, and gave me a body which gets tired and can only do so much.

Show me which tasks you want me to do, and help me to live prayerfully as I do them.

Sharpen my senses, that I may truly

see what I am looking at,

taste what I am eating,

listen to what I am hearing,

face what I am suffering,

celebrate the ways I am loved,

and offer to you whatever I am doing,

so that the water of the present moment

may be turned into wine

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Angela Ashwin

Psalm 23 for busy people

The Lord is my Pace-setter, I shall not rush,

He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,

He provides me with images of stillness

which restore my serenity.

He leads me in ways of efficiency,

through calmness of mind;

and his guidance is peace.

Even though I have a great many things

to accomplish each day,

I will not fret, for his presence is here.

His timelessness, his all-importance

will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal

in the midst of my activity,

by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquillity.

My cup of joyous energy overflows.

Surely harmony and effectiveness

shall be the fruits of my hours,

for I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,

and dwell in his house for ever.

Toki Miyashina

DRUDGERY DIVINE?

In spite of the dangers of stress and unemployment, purposeful work is a blessing. It offers dignity and satisfaction, and a framework for life. George Herbert uses the image of a ‘famous stone’ to illustrate the way that work, like everything else, can be redeemed and made valuable.

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things thee to see;

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee!

All may of thee partake;

Nothing can be so mean

Which with this tincture, ‘for thy sake’,

Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,

Makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold;

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for less be told.

George Herbert (1593–1633)

Jesus, Master Carpenter of Nazareth,

who on the cross through wood and nails

did work our whole salvation:

wield well your tools in this the workshop of your

world,

that we who come to you rough hewn

may by your hand be fashioned to a truer beauty

and a greater usefulness,

for the honour of your name.

Toc H

‘ALL SHALL BE WELL’

When we pray in troubled economic times we can easily feel powerless, caught in a machine much larger than anything we can influence. Many prayers, therefore, take us into the heart of the heart of God where there is reassurance and hope beyond the vicissitudes of every day.

I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord!

Psalm 27.13–14, NRSV

Lord, in these times

when we fear we are losing hope

or feel that our efforts are futile,

let us see in our hearts and minds

the image of your resurrection.

Let that be our source of courage and strength,

and with that, and in your company,

help us to face our challenges and struggles

against all that is born of despair,

through Jesus Christ our living hope.

From the Philippines

In you Lord I live,

I move,

I have my being.

In me Lord you live,

you move,

you have your being.