this is from a recent issue of "By Faith Magazine", produced by The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
Most of us have had it with bad news about the economy. Turn on the TV and the hits keep coming: $7 trillion lost in shareholder value, 19 percent decrease in home values, household debt exceeds $14.5 trillion, unemployment hits 6.1 percent. Who’s eager for more?
It might be nice to take a vacation from the economy. Yet, it’s impossible to avoid – the market economy pervades our lives. In his book Charting the Course, Bruce Howard asks, “Did you have cereal for breakfast made with grain grown in North Dakota or Argentina? Coffee from Columbia? Sugar from Honduras? Orange juice from Florida? Did you put on clothes made from cotton grown in Texas but sewn in Thailand?” His point: the market economy is so intertwined in our daily lives; we couldn’t escape if we wanted to. Even Mikhail Gorbachev says, “The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.”
If the economic marketplace is a fixture in our lives, how can we as Christians respond when it’s not working as we would like? When asked this question, even though he is a professor of business and economics at Wheaton College who holds both a PhD in economics and a Masters of administration in accountancy, Bruce Howard simply responds: “Well, Psalm 62 is pretty good.” As the financial markets offer us more ups and downs than Six Flags, and taxpayers foot the $700 billion tab for Wall Street wooziness, even to those with financial expertise Psalm 62 sounds pretty good:
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. …”
“Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”
Reading the Scriptures is one thing. Applying them to our hearts and lives is another. How can we live out the truth that God is our fortress and not be shaken when we watch our retirement savings vaporize? When we lose a lucrative, previously stable job? When we experience the financial security we’ve worked so hard to create crumble like a stale cookie between our fingers? Economists, pastors, and other financially-savvy experts equip us with four-C’s for coping with the current financial crisis: caution, contentment, community, and compassion.
rest of article here
