Volatility, market correction, uncertainty, speculation, these terms are just a fractional assessment of the present economic climate that describes the world today. Juggernaut companies succumbing to the ravages of market pressure, ineffective leadership, or overoptimistic risk assumptions, even the mighty have fallen. In a few hours, the accumulated paper fortunes of thousands of individuals disappeared. What Wall Street had granted over many years, it took back in an instant.
I write today, not as a detractor from the free market system, but as an individual that realizes afresh that when Jesus spoke openly about the dangers of loving money, He understood perfectly just what a fickle lover money could be. When Jesus cautioned His listeners about the risk of storing up treasures on earth, it wasn’t because He didn’t want us to enjoy good things, rather it was because He knew our tendency to find security in the accumulation.
Jesus understood what Wall Street just delivered. Jesus anticipated what economists are just unraveling. Jesus embraces what we so often undervalue.
We, you and me, are the object of the love of God. His heart, His mind, His attention, His future is not wrapped up in the cycles and patterns of any market. He knows what matters most, what lasts, and what brings authentic value and joy.
He encourages hard work and achievement, but never as a source of identity, never as a validation of worth.
Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread, not because He didn’t want us to plan ahead, but because He knew that if we wasted today fretting about tomorrow’s bread, that we would miss the joy of the moment, and because He knew that tomorrow will take care of itself.
Jesus consistently elevates the things that matter most to the places they rightly belong. It is our tendency to rearrange, to adjust, to modify.
His love will never succumb, His treasure will never deteriorate, His market will never collapse, His currency will never devalue.
God is love, forever, in all, through all.
Our treasure, our hope.
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