By Daxx Bondoc
Are you one of the people who are anxious about the current global financial crisis?
We can look at this on going financial crisis in term of economics. We can say that there were bad economic practices that cause this crisis, such as bad spending habits and incurring debts.
But we can also look at it with theological lenses.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” says St. Augustine. Our ultimate goal is God. But we are always tempted to find a substitute for God. And typically we think that we will find our ultimate happiness in wealth.
Money is good in itself. But we have a tendency to make it our God. And here is where the problem starts. We start making wealth the source of our confidence and our security. We then give what belongs to God to money, such as our time, energy and devotion. Any kind of idolatry is a path to misery.
To put our hope and security in temporal things such as money is a recipe for disappointment, this current financial crisis already proven that. Even the great and once wealthy United States of America was helpless in preventing this financial crisis from happening. They have put all their trust on man made institutions and now those institutions have failed them miserably.
This current global financial crisis can be viewed as a wake up call for all of us. This crisis is like an earthquake that shakes our very foundations, our confidence. Those who have built their life on the shifting sands of temporal things will find their life collapsing. While those who have built their foundations and confidence on the Rock, Jesus, will survive all the earthquakes and the storms.
This great crisis also serves as a reminder that we live in no lasting city. Our home is heaven. Everything in this world will pass away. Nothing is forever in this side of paradise. Yes, all our wealth will fade away sooner or later.
Let us take this time of trials to look at our very life, our very self. We have to check our foundations if we are to survive another global crisis.
“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build.” Psalm 127:1
If we want to transcend this global financial crisis we need to put all our eggs on God’s basket. Only His grace can help us withstand this storm.
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