Tuesday, October 07, 2008

There for Each Other - October 7, 2008

Booyah! 32° F baby! The autumn is here at last, and the day has not yet dawned. We will soon be mourning the passing of autumn as it usually lasts about 2 - 3 weeks around these parts. It surely feels cool out there too; I am not yet accustomed to the cold wind on my face when out walking. The cat was all puffed out too, looking like a furry volleyball this morning. What a wonderful devotional from Pastor Rogers this morning. We need to be reminded of that fact often. God does know us intimately, much more than we even know ourselves. We might be able to deceive our self about something, but we will not deceive the one who is truth. Praise the Lord for the dawning of the new day! It isn't a Monday and I have no dental appointment today; does it show? In the Christian walk, there are some days that are just worse than others. Our joy may be given by Jesus, but our happiness rises and falls with circumstance.

Our Congress had a new poster child for failure before them yesterday. The CEO of the failed Lehman Brothers investment bank enjoyed a 2-hour session in front of a congressional panel. Didn't we just go through this with the Enron gang? A different time, a different situation, but the executive pay and compensation stink smells very much the same. We once thought that the higher a CEO's compensation goes, the better the company was doing and, hopefully, the better the compensation would be at the other end. You know, the end of the pay chain that most of us are much closer too? However, in practice we have seen the executive compensation packages get better and better, while Congress must mandate pay raises at the minimum end of the scale. Seldom do we hear about a CEO suffering with the fortunes of his or her company either. When we took over Gander Mountain's mail order business in the mid 1990's, I heard about how the officers of the corporation helped themselves to huge "retention" bonuses prior to the bankruptcy. Little did I know that was my first personal example of the big scandals to come. A company does not have to be huge for those in charge of the till to behave badly. A friend at work is going through a lengthy court battle to recover assets his former partner embezzled. Had they been a public corporation they might have qualified for the Fortune Million, not a large company by any stretch of the imagination.

How do we get by financially in such challenging times? Well not by depending upon our own strength, physically or financially. We must, as always, trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look at my 401k balance? Not hardly, that would just make me sad. I am trusting in Jesus, and going to work each day to do my best for my employer. Pray for each other. Should a financial disaster strike one of us, we will be there in prayer and support for each other and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Hallelujah for the day!

Bucky

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