Keys to the Kingdom

I distinctly remember my Mom pulling our 1959 Chevy Impala into the gas station and telling the friendly attendant, “Two dollars worth please.“ While the gas was pumping, he would wash the windshield and check the oil. This incident happened around 1966 when I was just a little kid growing up in Missouri. Two dollars of gas didn’t fill up the tank, but it would get us to the grocery store and church several times and probably make a trip to Greenfield to see relatives.

What are you full of? Where I come from, an individual can be full of baloney but I don’t recommend it if you’re a Christ follower. Your testimony won’t amount to anything if you aren’t trustworthy nor speak the truth. And I wouldn’t recommend being full of yourself either — that’s a big turnoff. God‘s Word instructs us to be full of God. “…So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19 NASB).

Believers should have a burning desire to be full of their heavenly Father and represent Him well. If we’re full of God, then we’re full of love and that’s a big drawing card that never fails. We can draw people to Christ Jesus by simply loving on them. “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16 NLT).

I remember my Dad cautioning me to be careful at the gas pump and not accidentally fill my tank with diesel instead of unleaded. It’s not a good thing to be filled with the wrong stuff. The New Testament states that a person can be filled with drunkenness, fear, madness, lies, indignation, envy, confusion, and unrighteousness, just to name a few. I ran out of gas a couple of times in the ‘70s and that was a bad deal. There were no cell phones, so I had to hitch a ride to the nearest gas station to fill a borrowed gas can. When I returned to my vehicle and poured the gas in the tank, I had to make sure I’d saved a little bit to pour into the carburetor or it wouldn‘t start.

It’s important for Christians to keep a sharp eye on their spiritual gas gauge. We need to keep our tanks full; we can do that by daily studying God’s Word, living out worship, communing in prayer, being a faithful church partner, and practicing love. Mary’s Song of Praise contained these words, “He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53 NLT). Some of those good things are wisdom, joy, all knowledge, comfort, all the fullness of God, and fruits of righteousness, just to name a few. We should be so full of God that love pours all over everyone we’re around.

A believer with an empty love tank simply isn’t in top working condition. And a ‘65 Stingray is disappointing without fuel — that machine was made to run! Christ followers were made to love, so let‘s fill ‘er up and get to loving on people!

The Key: Watch your spiritual gas gauge and keep your love tank filled up.

“Hiring for all positions.” “Immediate openings.” “Career opportunities, inquire within.” We have all seen the signs everywhere. Why can’t employers fill positions? Is the economy really that hot? What is going on?

While the economy is experiencing growth, it really can’t be described as “hot.” In September, the U.S. had 5 million fewer jobs than it had before the pandemic, based on Labor Department data. Yet, employers have reported high rates of unfilled openings. Hiring difficulties have also increased competition for workers and put upward pressure on wages. Across the economy, there were 10.4 million unfilled jobs at the end of August, according to the Labor Department, exceeding the roughly 8.4 million unemployed Americans looking for work.

In the near-term, the number one reason why we are shorthanded nationwide is the increasing retirement rate among Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964). Until this year, the overall number of retired Boomers had been growing annually by about 2 million on average since 2011 (the year the oldest Boomer reached age 65); in this last year ending September 30, the number was 3.2 million, bringing the total number of retired Americans to 28.6 million. Apparently the pandemic accelerated the retirement decision for many Boomers at just the wrong time for our economy.

Another trend that has aggravated our labor shortage is the declining birth rate. The American birth rate has fallen from 24.268 births per 1,000 in 1950 to 12.001 in 2020; less than half. As a percentage of the whole, there are simply fewer young people coming into the labor force every year.

Additionally, the labor force participation rate has dropped significantly in recent years. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population 16 years and older who are working or actively looking for work. This measurement has been dropping and stood at 66.1% before the Great Recession of 2007 caused the rate to fall to an all-time low of 58.2% in 2010. We have recovered to a rate of 61.7% in June of this year, but it remains 1.7 percentage points below the pre-pandemic level of 63.4%.

Why are fewer working age Americans wanting to work? No one knows for sure, but speculation points to the increases in the social safety net, the difficulty of finding day care, the increasing need for care of the elderly, and a change in the work ethic, to name a few.

The bottom line is that employers will go where there is workforce. To attract and retain employers, we will have to grow our workforce in rural America. Bourbon County REDI is focused on how we can make our communities more attractive to the workforce we need. More on that in my next column.