Jesus: “Seek first the Kingdom of God”
October 9, 2008 (Thursday)
A comic strip in the Tuesday newspapers showed a man declaring his intention to invest all his money in land. So he dug a hole and buried his money on his land. People are beginning to wonder if that’s not a good idea.
The markets are gyrating wildly up and down, up and down. The trend, however, is down. My stocks have now lost 40% of what they were worth 3 months ago. The market indices, however, are only part of the picture in today’s economic woes. Much of it is so complicated that the average guy such as I doesn’t understand what the Secretary of the Treasury is talking about when he appears on TV to explain it all.
All in all, economic upheaval is the order of the day, and each of us must decide for himself/herself what, if anything, he/she needs to do to cut losses.
Now is probably not the time to analyze the root cause of the financial problems we face in the nation and around the world, but as far as I can determine, it’s the same old thing that has disrupted many institutions these days: the “me first” attitude that has installed itself in our minds and hearts. It says, “I must have what I want and I cannot allow myself to be concerned about how that might affect other people.”
Jesus taught us something entirely different, but we find it difficult to live our lives His way. He talked about humility and self-denial, becoming a real neighbor to our fellow human beings, and paying special attention to the needy and less fortunate. He called to us, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Many of us are so caught up in our own interests that we never hear Him.
A “Christianity Today” article said those on Wall Street were having special prayer meetings as the crisis unfolded. We would all do well to pray and rededicate ourselves to putting the Kingdom of God first in our lives, freeing ourselves from the tyranny of self interest. In the final analysis, our only security is in the Lord, anyway.