Farewell to the Aughts!

It's hard to believe that tonight we say hello to a new decade. What should we call it, the twenty-teens? The 21st century is reaching its adolescence. 2010 sounds so science fiction, but then so did 2001 and we quickly got over that. The future is upon us. From a personal vantage point the past decade (the twenty-aughts?) has been spectacular, the best of my life. Let's see. I married the girl of my dreams, saw the birth and baptism of my son, discovered the gospel through Reformed theology, returned to the church, and fell in love with the church despite her many flaws. Not only fell in love, but found various ministry callings in which to serve, including the joy of serving as an elder at our church for the last year and a half. It was the decade I became a Presbyterian! None of the foregoing was on my radar screen when 1999 rolled over into Y2K. Sure there was heartbreak and sorrow, but I've been the beneficiary of lavish grace. Quoting the old Caedmon's Call song, "looking back I see the lead of love."

More reasons to look back with fondness include the fact that the Gators won four National Championships in the decade (two in basketball and two in football) and came within an Alabama blow-out of playing for a fifth. Roll Tide (not really). I was fortunate to buy my house before the real estate bubble, and I've managed to hang on to the same job I had when the decade began. In ways large and small it has been the best of times. Yes, my little family continues to be backed into a corner by some of the same economic forces that many of you are -- huge increases in the cost of health insurance, stagnant wages, etc -- but at decade's end we're doing ok thank you.

How about the big picture. Does anyone doubt that the decade was defined on a September morning in 2001? As I watched those events unfold on a small television in my company's kitchen I remember remarking to a co-worker, "this changes everything." And it did. 9/11 unleashed a sequence of events that continue to bedevil our nation and our world. In many ways the last ten years were quite grim. There was a lot not to like from where I sit. In the West at least, Christianity became less and less relevant. Distortions of the faith like the "prosperity gospel" continued to damage the church's witness. In vast areas of society we continued to define deviancy down. Just when you think our celebrity-driven scandal-obsessed media culture can't go any lower, it does. Turning to economics it's hard to disagree with Paul Krugman's assessment that the aughts were The Big Zero. He writes:

What was truly impressive about the decade past, however, was our unwillingness, as a nation, to learn from our mistakes.

Even as the dot-com bubble deflated, credulous bankers and investors began inflating a new bubble in housing. Even after famous, admired companies like Enron and WorldCom were revealed to have been Potemkin corporations with facades built out of creative accounting, analysts and investors believed banks’ claims about their own financial strength and bought into the hype about investments they didn’t understand. Even after triggering a global economic collapse, and having to be rescued at taxpayers’ expense, bankers wasted no time going right back to the culture of giant bonuses and excessive leverage.

Then there are the politicians. Even now, it’s hard to get Democrats, President Obama included, to deliver a full-throated critique of the practices that got us into the mess we’re in. And as for the Republicans: now that their policies of tax cuts and deregulation have led us into an economic quagmire, their prescription for recovery is — tax cuts and deregulation.

So let’s bid a not at all fond farewell to the Big Zero — the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing. Will the next decade be better? Stay tuned. Oh, and happy New Year.

Ouch! Happy New Year and pass the kool-aid. While short-term pessimism based on recent history may be warranted, long-term pessimism is not. As a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:20) I know that history is moving in a positive direction. Appropriately I've been finishing off the year reading through Revelation. In chapters 21 and 22 John's prophetic vision weaves together the great themes of the Bible to describe the glorious consummation of God's re-creation of all things, coupled with a dire warning to those who ignore his great salvation. John's revelation, written to persecuted first-century Christians, continues to remind 21st-century Christians where this is all heading. As recent events have shown, our fallen world is not a safe place. It may get less safe in 2010, or by God's mercy, the coming year may see fresh outbreaks of reconciliation and peace. I hope so, I pray so, and God calls his church to work toward that end. But whatever happens the gospel will go forward and God's purposes will not be stopped.

So friends, let's go have a party. Here's to a joyful 2010!