Chris Cole FRSA

"We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future".

These are the lyrics from a Christian band I used to broadcast on Plymouth Sound's 'Cross Rhythms Experience' in the 80's. Well, time's marching on, but the sentiment of the song is a constant reality for those of us who have a faith in the 'Who' of the song and belief that life has purpose.

The news media, reporting global economic meltdown and crisis with stormy times ahead for the financial and banking sectors, will quite naturally fuel fear of the future and challenge us as individuals, families and businesses to respond with either fear or faith, or both.

The future challenges are about financial insecurity and global uncertainties, but our forebears faced other, far more severe challenges in the past and I, for one, am a person who believes that history can be a great teacher.

My family, on my mother's side, were relatively wealthy at the turn of the 1900's and owned many properties in Plymouth, many of which were bombed during the Second World War. Like today, there was no compensation for acts of God and acts of war and since Plymouth was one of the most bombed cities in England, property was literally destroyed (not just devalued through economic downturns). Although they lost a considerable portion of their assets, I remember listening to grandparents, aunts and uncles share their stories and pondered and marvelled that they seemed to have a different attitude to life.

For this older generation, they were fighting for more than just financial survival, they were fighting for their very existence and way of life. There are enough Plymothians reading this article, who as children went through the challenge of the war years and the bombings of our great city and remember the inspiration of Churchill through his speeches encouraging them and our forebears that we were fighting for the survival of Christian civilisation. Even President Roosevelt's speeches added to the encouragement to stick in there by declaring that the "only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

So, what are the values we hold dear when the tough times come? The times ahead may well force all of us to drill down into the reserves of our human ingenuity and rethink a few things about the future and our place or direction within that future.

The Chinese have a definition for 'crisis' which is 'dangerous opportunity'. The Americans as a nation are usually optimistic and believe that there is another opportunity just around the corner. Let us as individuals and neighbours throw off our cynicism, which often distorts our view of things as a nation. Let's see things half full and not half empty. It's amazing how that attitude could really get us through some tough times.

Let me encourage you to take a moment to reflect on your life and with wisdom, which can often come through prayer, ask God for help in defining your values and the way ahead during these times of 'dangerous opportunities'.

This article was originally published in the Plymouth Shopper, a group of 7 localised community newspapers produced by Cornerstone Vision, reaching 62,000 homes every month in Plymouth. Each edition carries positive news stories and features, and provides local businesses, community groups and organisations with a very localised media platform to reach their own area.