Good Saturday morning to you! Wow, the prices at the retail stores are really biting hard these days. It doesn't seem to matter which store; they are all biting the wallet hard. The question that must come to mind is: if the prices of many things continues to rise, will my paycheck see a similar rise? Probably not. We will get some letter from one of the company officers about how we must control costs in order to stay competitive in this tough economy. The number one cost they are referring to will of course be employee pay raises. However, we cannot give out pay raises and price increases all willy-nilly or you could get a boom town kind of thing going where everyone earns a lot, but everything costs a lot too. As you can tell, I don't have the answers to the economic troubles. My understanding of economics and how it all works is not going to win any prize. Like you, I read the news and magazine articles and trust those with titles and/or letters behind their names to explain things to me. Is there a possibility that some or all of them are misleading me, deliberately or otherwise? Yes, that is one of the reasons why my faith is in God. When a person is among what some would call the "little" people, or others might call the middle or working class, we simply don't have a lot of personal knowledge of the large institutions that we hope are managing the even larger things well, like the economy, for example. Now hold up a sec, isn't God even larger, or more powerful, or more unknowable than any human institution or activity? Yes and no. Certainly God is all-powerful, but unknowable? Imagine if the federal government had a direct message pipeline to your heart or mind, a pipeline that you knew was trustworthy, wouldn't it be easier to know the workings of that institution? We come to trust God with everything that we have, and He accepts us just as we are when we first believe in His Son. The institutions of this world do not know our thoughts, and would probably want to change some of them if they did know. While the powers of this world seek to control us as a population, the real power in the universe wants to have a personal relationship with each of us... on an individual basis. How incredible and wonderful is that?
I am going off the deep end today. I read about the passage of the rescue or bailout package through our government, and like many am left wondering what it all means for me. The fact that a new car loan might be easier in a month or so doesn't mean that I should run out and buy one. While I ponder the potential effects of the latest move by our government, I wonder if there is a book that I can read to better understand the institutions and bureaucracies of the government. God gave us a wonderful handbook into His desires for us, His love for us, and His Son, who came to save us. The Bible is a fairly imposing book for length and complexity, and yet is also short and simple. Compare that with the Code of Federal Regulations, the rules our government and its citizens are supposed to abide by. Don't run out to buy one, Title 47 covering telecommunications is more than twice the size of the Bible and comprises only a small part of the CFR. God's handbook looks much simpler when compared to the rules handed down by our government, and for content the Bible is hands down much more valuable.
Actually, if everyone obeyed the Bible, we wouldn't need the CFR at all! A person who loved everyone else would not try to drive a truckload of hazardous material through a town. A person who loves doesn't try to embezzle from an institution. A government wouldn't need extensive rules to govern if all of us faithfully obeyed the two important commandments as stated by Jesus: love God with all of your heart, your mind, and your strength. And equally important, love your neighbor as yourself. That is not an exact quote, but you will recognize the words from your reading in the Gospels.
What other news do we have today, since I am going on at such length this morning. My cold is finally letting me live again, though a sniffle and hack or two remains today. Our favorite football team, the Huskers, stands a good chance of breaking another long streak as the 5th-ranked Missouri Tigers come to Lincoln. Missouri's team has not won at Lincoln for like, 30 years, but the decline of our college team may be evident today. Even with a new coach, it will take some time for Nebraska to regain a place among the top teams in the nation. So which is more important, the news about the economy or the football team. In most households in Nebraska, the football game will take precedence until sometime on Monday, after the game is well discussed of course. Perhaps in this case, a sports diversion is good for us, the news about the economy will take a lot of explanation and pondering. I haven't had the courage to check my 401K balance in the past two weeks; call me a coward if you will, but I figure there isn't much that I can do about it anyway. The time to move money out of stocks would have been about a month ago, long before I had any knowledge of the "panic". The worries of today are more than enough for me; trying to gaze into the economic crystal ball only leaves me with a headache.
Alright then! I think I have rambled on enough for one day. Let us think on the glory of God today!
Bucky
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