Sometimes it takes a recession to dig up the roots of our lives and replant them in soil that causes us to bear the fruit of generosity. 2020 — the year of the “Great Lockdown,” leading to what some are now calling the “Great Coronavirus Recession.” It was triggered by a strategic wager: sacrifice economic momentum in order to physically distance people, all with the goal of starving and killing off a spreading virus. It was a huge gamble, and it hurt. The Dow Jones, flirting with 30,000 in February, plummeted to under 19,000 a month later. As I record, 22 million Americans have filed unemployment claims. The financial fallout of the Great Coronavirus Recession has been compared to the Great Recession of 2007–2009, even evoking comparisons to the Great Depression of 1929–1933. Looking ahead, some think the economy will bounce back to normal as soon as the virus is under control. Others are less optimistic. Recessions are killjoys: They destroy small businesses. They disrupt life. They take away our normalcy. And they cost us our happiness. In March the president predicted America would lose more lives to the despair of recession than to the virus itself, saying that “people get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies . . . in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about with regard to the virus.” Statistically, this statement is hotly contested. But just appreciate these words and what they say about the apparent threat of economic uncertainty on emotional wellbeing. This isn’t the first recession. It won’t be the last one. So what is God up to in this recession? About a decade ago, John Piper preached a sermon under that exact title: “What Is the Recession For?” It was preached on February 1, 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession. At the time, the Dow had been dropping, but had not yet bottomed out. Recessions, he shows, are not meant to kill our joy, but to make our joy more stable. Here’s Pastor John, explaining f Romans 2 Chapter 2 1 Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judges another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same things. 2 And we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practise such things. 3 And reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 who will render to every man according to his works: 7 to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life: 8 but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, `shall be' wrath and indignation, 9 tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; 10 but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: 11 for there is no respect of persons with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law; 13 for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified: 14 (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; 15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing `them'); 16 in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ. 17 But if thou bearest the name of a Jew, and restest upon the law, and gloriest in God, 18 and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth; 21 thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22 thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob temples? 23 thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonorest thou God? 24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written. 25 For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. 26 If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? 27 and shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. Corinthians 8:1–2. Read or listen to this interview at our website: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/could-a-recession-serve-our-joy Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes: https://www.desiringgod.org/ask-pastor-john