The Retail Think Tank
produced this on-line report about the health of the UK’s retail business.
“The health of UK retail has shown some
signs of improvement over the past quarter and the outlook is looking more
encouraging than it has done for some time, particularly as the nation heads
into the Christmas season feeling better about itself.
Following its quarterly meeting in October,
the KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank (RTT) upgraded its Retail Health Index to 79
and its panel of retail experts forecasted that this could improve to 81 in
quarter four. This would not only mark
the highest level since Quarter Three 2011, but the strongest
quarter-on-quarter leap for four years.
Two of the three key drivers of retail
health – demand and margin - were more positive in quarter three than in the
previous quarter, and cost factors over the period were largely neutral. It is
the first time for three years that both demand and margins have contributed
positively to the improvement of retail health….The RTT predicts an even more
promising outlook for UK retail over the next quarter, not only because it’s
the Christmas trading period; consumer confidence appears to be on the
increase, the housing market is more buoyant and economic conditions are
generally improving.
One important
consequence, the RTT believes, is that as people become less nervous at losing
their jobs and interest rates remain low, they are less intent on saving and
becoming more comfortable to spend. And if people do start shopping more, they
may be inclined to ‘trade up’ to premium goods, particularly over Christmas.”
The UK’s economy having experienced a double-dip
recession plunged many a business into an unhealthy state, so this news from
the RTT will put some colour back into the cheeks of boardroom members, and
brighten the eyes of their shareholders.
People generally are feeling upbeat about their job
security and prospects and are more confident to spend some of their disposable
income instead of saving it for a time of possible unemployment.
The construction industry is often first to feel the
effects of recession and last to benefit from any recovery, so it is good to
hear that business is on the up in that sector with contracts being placed that
previously had been put on hold until better days.
Jesus told a parable about a farmer
whose business was on the up. Luke 12:16 reads, “The
ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What
shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This
will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I
bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
His business plan would have pleased any
bank-manager; he was an expansionist and was prepared to invest his potential
profits in building new bigger barns. The man may have been good with numbers
but he made the great error of neglecting No.1. Many years ago when I was
trading as a small jobbing builder, I was a bit run-down and consulted my
doctor. He advised me to ease up, saying, “You are your most important asset in
your business”. I never forgot that! In my case it was physical and temporary,
but in the farmers case it was terminal and spiritual, it concerned his soul.
There
is a great danger in making provision for the body and neglecting the soul, the
body is not permanent but the soul is. The big question is - Where will one’s soul be in
eternity? A bank-manager might have considered the farmer’s business plan as
prudent, but the Lord said that he was a fool to go after the transitory
material things at the expense of his soul’s eternal need. What about you my
dear reader? A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
‘To lose one’s wealth is much, to lose one’s health is more, to lose one’s soul
in Hell is such that nothing can restore.’
When
Christ was born, the Inn Keeper at Bethlehem must have thought that his
business was on the up when Caesar commissioned a census and taxation of
everyone in the known world. It meant for him that Bethlehem would be inundated
with people needing accommodation, and he was right. When the time came every
room in his establishment was booked solid, business was booming. To be
confronted by a young couple seeking a room, and her being heavily pregnant was
something he could do without. There was no consideration on his part about
Mary’s condition, no compassion to move him to offer his room for the birth of
the Son of God.
One might say that he did not know, he was ignorant about Micah
5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth
unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting.”
The Inn Keeper missed his opportunity to be
involved in the birth of Jesus, for him, the outside place of a stable would be
his level of interest in this amazing event of the incarnation of the Son of
God.
In 1878 Daniel Whittle adapted the hymn, ‘Have
you any room for Jesus’, one verse reads
Room for pleasure, room for business,
But for Christ the crucified,
Not a place that He could enter,
In the Heart for
which He died.
The busyness
of business, whether on the up, or on the down, can rob a person of the most
important decision that a person has to face, that of, what shall I do with Jesus
which is called the Christ?
Why not put the Lord in the first place in your life this Christmas, no longer outside but
inside directing the future path of your life, and say with Paul, “For to
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.
The life will be altogether on
the up!
Written by a Guest Blogger for FTMP.
