{"id":31612,"date":"2023-03-06T00:41:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T08:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31612"},"modified":"2023-03-06T00:41:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T08:41:27","slug":"i-can-do-all-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/i-can-do-all-things\/","title":{"rendered":"I Can Do All Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Reading Karl Polanyi’s book\u00a0The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Times<\/em>, this past week I noted that the author wrote this book in the 1940s. He wrote of the free market system with no government intervention called laissez-faire that was first used in France in the 1800s. [1] He also talked about a new economic system in the early 1800s called the self-regulating market, or the SRM. [2]\u00a0Before the Industrial Revolution as a whole we lived off the land, shared with others in need and our rulers redistributed goods in times of need. [3] After the Industrial Revolution, land, labor and money became commodities. [4] There was no longer a free labor force. Whereas before people would not travel in their lifetimes sometimes anymore than a few miles, now people traveled all the time to find work and homes. [5] Markets were regulated now, where they were not regulated before. [6]<\/p>\n

All of these changes created deep poverty in people, and great wealth for some. [7] Poor laws were developed, but they didn’t help much. [8] Over the years, to the point where we find ourselves today, the market has had times of great instability. The rich have continued to get richer… the poor – we have them with us still today. Are they poorer? I don’t know.<\/p>\n

I grew up in this capitalistic society. I was one of the poor. We lived on welfare and food stamps. I worked a job afterschool beginning at age 16 to help bring in money for my family. I put myself through college because my mother couldn’t afford to send me. As a result of hard work and education, and the good Lord, I have a good job and a place to call home. I’m no longer in poverty. I know where my next meal will come from. There were years where we didn’t know about our meals.<\/p>\n

I have relatives who are very wealthy. When we were younger and my mother was in great need, she would ask them for help from time to time. They would always tell her that they don’t help family. I never knew them as a child. I didn’t think they were real – some wealthy relatives that lived in mansions far away. I know them now as an adult. They’re nice people and they’re Christians. What I have learned about them is that they don’t help people who ask them for money. They never would’ve helped my mother anyway though, because they were never close enough to her or her children to see her great need.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned from that in my own life. There are people all around me that are in great need every day. Sometimes I have the means to be of help to them. I try to live with my eyes open to the needs around me. I pray to have the eyes and hands and feet of Jesus in my community. I alone cannot make a difference in everyone’s life and situation, but I can make a difference in one at a time. And isn’t that what we are called to do as believers in Christ Jesus? “To walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us”? -Ephesians 5:2 [9]<\/p>\n

As Paul writes, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:12-13 [10]<\/p>\n

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[1] Polanyi, Karl. 2001. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/i>. 2nd Beacon Paperback ed. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.<\/p>\n

[2] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3] Jerry Michalski, “The Great Transformation”, 5MinU, 2014, YouTube Video, 6:05, Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[5] Asad Zaman, “Summary: Polanyi’s Great Transformation”. YouTube Video, 27:27, Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5] Zaman, Asad. \u201cSummary of the Great Transformation by Polanyi.\u201d Medium (blog), August 25, 2018. https:\/\/asaduzaman.medium.com\/summary-of-the-great-transformation-by-polanyi-c329541e8532.<\/p>\n

[6] Jerry Michalski, “The Great Transformation”, 5MinU, 2014, YouTube Video, 6:05, Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[7] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[8] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[8] Clark, Jason Paul, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (2018). Faculty Publications \u2013 Portland Seminary.\u00a0 https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes.<\/p>\n

[9] Crossway Bibles, ed. 2007. ESV: Study Bible: English Standard Version<\/i>. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles.<\/p>\n

[10] Ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Reading Karl Polanyi’s book\u00a0The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Times, this past week I noted that the author wrote this book in the 1940s. He wrote of the free market system with no government intervention called laissez-faire that was first used in France in the 1800s. [1] He also talked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[467,4],"class_list":["post-31612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","tag-clark","tag-polanyi","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31614,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31612\/revisions\/31614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}