take a deep breath, read Matthew 6, it's going to be OK!!

This past week was not somewhat, but very crazy on Wall Street and financially speaking for the USA. People's investments, home mortgages, and stock accounts were going all over the place. I overheard a guy talking about his stock account at Target last night, and his voice revealed an intense amount of concern and worry.

Hurricane Ike is gone, but yesterday and today has brought gas shortages, a.k.a. no more gas being sold all around Nashville. I'm not sure how many other parts of the country were affected by refinery outages. I went to a gas station today, and ended up being the last person to get some gas after waiting in line. The scene was crazy. Employees of the gas station running around frantically, trying to direct the line of cars, shouting out anxiously. The person filling up next to me was speaking about all that's going on in a noticeably concerned tone. Newspaper articles with the titles "panic" this, panic "that" related to no gas.

I don't want to sound insincere or critical of the anxiety and panic, and I know that many people's livelihoods, at least somewhat, are found in their stock portfolios and being able to buy gas and transport themselves to work where they get their paycheck, the major livelihood. I also recognize that I've been afforded incredible, beyond logical comforts in life that I don't deserve.

But please, take a deep breath people!! I lived in Argentina where these "worries" were a much more frequent and noticeable part of life...gas shortages, money shortages, government instability, and Argentines have learned to take them in stride. Things come and they go. I want Argentina to get better, very much so, but my point in writing about Argentina is that while they may not have things as "figured out" as America in terms of political and economic issues, they still live and have full lives. Not having gas or having a stock portfolio that is never going to go down or fluctuate wildly will not be the end of the world.

Once again, I know these things are important and have much meaning for a lot of people. At the gas station today, I was very close to weeping. I was deeply saddened by the anxiety and panic I saw in people's actions and words.

Oh that people of this nation and Nashville would know the fullness of you JESUS! and be able to cast away their anxieties and concerns!! "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34 NIV)