Are You Worried About the Economy?

I go in cycles trying to keep up on the news. Typically, I do a pretty poor job of it -- gravitating only to stories that intrigue me. However, it is hard to miss that the economy is suffering. If the stretch of my paycheck didn't clue me in, the headlines would.

Last night at BN, I was cashiering. I caught the gist of one of the papers. Though the person who spent $350 on books belies the struggle, the problem is of global proportions. One article talked about how Americans' new interest in saving is impacting nations like China that depend so heavily on exporting of goods to this country.

Tonight, I caught a blip on CBS news about newspapers. Apparently, some major holders of papers are filing for bankruptcy. They had already been struggling because of the wealth of free information now available at our fingertips. The sale of ads have decreased and we just don't buy the paper anymore.

I haven't a clue where the phrase comes from, but I believe it is in regards to money. I wonder how long (or if we are already there) until buyers, lenders, or whomever looks at us and says about the American dollar "It's not worth the paper it's printed on."

Between shoppers last night (long waits on a Sunday night), I got to thinking about God's economy. I can imagine Satan looking at our sin ravaged and decaying world and shaking his head, turning to God, and making a very good case that we aren't "worth the paper we're printed on." And in some respects, he might be right. How many times did I sin today? How many cross words or hurtful thoughts?

But God wouldn't buy into it. In spite of the grim economy of my soul at times, I shouldn't buy into it either. God listened to the plea of the hymn writer Robert Robinson when in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing he wrote:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above

Jesus takes my ravaged heart from Satan's hand as Satan points out every flaw. Jesus turns it over in his nail scarred hands and points triumphantly at the seal that marks it for His courts above. He states, "Not worth the paper it's written on but so dear to me that I find it worth my very blood."

Tonight I shall strive not to give over to my worries and frets, because Jesus is in charge of the economy of my soul. It's backed by His grace and love.

Celebration -- Hope Chronicles 57

A few weeks ago, I was at the pool with my friend Jill and her two boys. The boys were off at the slides and Jill and I were sitting in the very shallow (can just walk in and get your feet wet if you want) end of the pool. Jill had been working on her latest book and had just recently got it sent off to the publisher. (It's due out next spring and sounds very cool. It parallels the similarities between Jesus and motherhood -- like the crowds following him everywhere.)

My question was, "So, what did you do to celebrate getting it turned in?"

She looked a bit startled and said something to the effect of, "Life gets so busy I just move on to the next thing."

On the flip side, one of her boys thought we needed ice cream to celebrate his going down the big slides for the first time.

I don't know how good I am at celebrating things. However, that conversation has stuck with me. I wondered how many things I skip celebrating in my life because I get busy. I think I more easily see the things in life that others could celebrate.

Celebration usually denotes the bigger things like birthdays, Christmas, Easter, the job promotion. It's setting aside a special day or time in recognition of the event. And one of the things that usually comes along with celebrations is the making of memories and remembering the past.

In the old hymn "Come Thou Fount of Blessings" it says, "Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help come." Rather than being a reference to Charles Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge, it's a reference to 1 Samuel 7:12. The Israelites had been fighting with the Philistines. At one point, the Philistine's are subdued. Verse 12 says, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far has the Lord helped us.'"

On second thought, maybe that verse is also what Dickens had in mind with Ebenezer Scrooge -- the man who couldn't imagine letting his employee off for Christmas. Ebenezer Scrooge learns the importance of celebration in that story.

Remembering. That, I think, is the heart of celebration. Celebration is the language of hope. It does three key things:

1. It marks the event as special and worthy of noting.
2. It gives time to pause and thank God for his part in it.
3. In remembering God's provision or blessing, it prepares our hearts for tomorrow. In recognizing God's provision it helps us trust Him with the future.

Does everything call for cake and ice cream? Maybe not. Does everything call for recognition by loads people? Maybe not. But, more things than not probably call for "little celebrations" of thanksgiving. Maybe it is setting aside an hour to read and pray or get a massage. Maybe it is the phone call to those couple of special friends to say, "Guess what God did . . . " so they can rejoice with us. But more than anything, it is setting that metaphorical or physical "stone" in place to remind us that God is with us. That is always cause for celebration and hope.

What is one thing that you can celebrate today?