Less than a month before I was to graduate high school in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Lord used a massive blaze to consume over 400 homes and 48,000 acres of land known as the Cerro Grande. The irony of it all was on vivid display: the small town that will forever be known for the Manhattan Project and its creation of the world's first weapon of mass destruction (the atomic bomb) was being engulfed in flames because of the strike of a match. The aftermath was astonishing - what once was, simply no longer existed. Everything the flames touched were gone except for piles of rubble and remnants of household items that looked vaguely familiar.

As I think back on the Cerro Grande fire, I am reminded of two things: The power of God over all of creation, and the fleeting existence of the things of this world. The Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper wrote, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'" And wrapped in the absolute supremacy of Christ is the wise exhortation of the apostle James: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:13-14). Be it fires or stock market crashes, credit default swaps or cancer, hurricanes or planes crashing into buildings, wars or genocide, terrorism or exploding factories, vehicle collisions or stillborn children, famine or layoffs, recession or inflation, these two things never change: God is sovereign, and life is but a mist.

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote toward the end of both of their lives, "My Friend, you and I have lived in serious times." Indeed, we too live in serious times with mostly unknowns in the future. A Cerro Grande-like disaster might rip through our local communities in the next 5 minutes or the national economy might take yet another unexpected turn for the worse. I have talked to many Christians in these days who have wondered what it means that they are losing hours at work, cuts in pay, or a complete loss of their job. "What is God up to?" In a recent sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pastor John Piper delivered a sermon entitled, What is the recession for? Pastor John's conclusions were as follows:

• He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
• He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
• He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
• He intends to advance his saving mission in the world--the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church--precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
• He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

Like you, I simply cannot grasp all the reasons why God has placed us in a "recession". I assume there are literally trillions of reasons being worked out in the lives of every human and institution upon this planet. But I am assured of this: God is calling us to a greater understanding of who He is, what He is capable of, and how we must trust Him in all the ebbs and flows of life. For some, God will use the recession to reveal the meaninglessness of earthly possessions compared to the Mount Everest significance of possessing Christ as the ultimate treasure. For others, God will use the recession to make known the riches of His mercy in the midst of what feels like a dark providence. And in the midst of it all, God will also be adding kindling to His wrath on those whose lives and desires are motivated by greed and earthly prosperity. Yet, these are all still but smaller reasons in the greatest reason why God has sent a blazing fire to consume the monetary hopes and dreams of the majority of Americans. God's greatest reason for the recession is to magnify the worth of the cross. The recession is bringing this all to the surface, calling us to repent and believe the magnificence of the gospel. The work of Christ on the cross is glorious, and will be central to our eternal worship today as we proclaim, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" (Revelation 5:12). Praise God for the sanctifying effects of recession so that we might be prepared all the more to stand before the King on judgment day as unworthy, justified sinners, pleading the blood of Christ. While tomorrow's events are uncertain to us, one thing is eternally irrevocable - God is sovereign and will use all things, seen and unseen, for His glory, and the good of His people.