True Security

Good Morning All,

Bailout Sinks and Dow Follows!
House defies leaders in face of constituents’ anger!
777 point loss is market’s biggest tumble ever!
Crisis claims a new victim as Citigroup swallows Wachovia!
What’s ahead and what to do? Fear and fury doomed compromise!
Leaders will retool rescue bill!

Just a few of the recent headlines that have greeted us in the News & Observer…and if these headlines and the related articles aren’t enough for me, just when I was beginning to wean myself from the bombardment of television and radio news, I find myself tuned in more than ever before! And then the more putout I am over the hype and spin the media folks are weaving through so much of the coverage. And as I listen, really listen, to it all, I smell fear running through it all…

Fear…one of the most debilitating emotions in our lives. As fear mounts, we allow it to take front stage and before we know it, it’s in the driver’s seat and we begin to make decisions that perhaps we wouldn’t otherwise make. We say and do things that are uncharacteristically not us. We begin to mistrust everything and everybody. We begin to hoard our possessions and we become less and less generous with our money; our time; our energy; our commitments… And we no longer recognize the person staring back at us from the mirror. Mirror, mirror, on the wall...who’s the most fearful of them all?

So, what exactly do we fear most? Many would reply, “ I fear losing it all…all that I have worked so hard for…all that matters the most to me…all my retirement benefits; my money; my children’s education; my house; my car; my job; my security…I’ve been told that human beings have only 2 innate fears: the fear of falling (you, falling—not stock markets); and the fear of loud noises—not the crashing stock market). If we accept this understanding, then it means that all other fears come from learned behavior; we’ve been taught how to fear everything else in our lives.

Wow! Where does all that fear come from? Let me step out on a spiritual limb here and say, that our basic fears in life come from a lack of trust that fuels our inability to hope. Whatever happened to trusting that God is the source of all we have; God is the source of who we are? Whatever happened to being poor in things and rich in soul?

And where has all our hope gone? Hope comes from trusting God in the first place—making that trust the very foundation upon which our lives are built. It comes in remembering and believing that God is in charge and that God really does desires the very best for all of us. Perhaps it’s time to dig a bit deeper into our spiritual bank accounts, lest we allow a hostile takeover; lest we need to file for a different kind of bankruptcy…

Let us gather together in worship as we trust in God to shape and form us as a community of faith; building our trust; securing our faith foundation and offering us hope beyond all hope…

Trust them with bailout? Ha! Ha! Ha! (Joseph Galloway; Other Opinion page, N & O 9/28/08)

Naw…“Trust in God with all your heart” Prov.3:5

Blessings, Joanne