“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” ISA 43:1 On Even though consumers were feeling cheery enough to flock to store and blow their newly pocketed “gas” money we had to be reminded that investors “feared” the dramatically slowing economy, that the “barometer of investor fear” as measured by the Chicago Board of Options had jumped 22%.
Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, made us all feel a lot better by saying that we had actually been in a recession since late last year and ” the U.S. economy remained under considerable strain.”
With so much fear, worry and strain in evidence around me, but not inside of me I began to wonder if others felt the same. With so many people close to retirement or in retirement fearful about the state of their investments, I decided to put the question to the younger generation.
I decided to ask two grad students who I knew were just making it and had heavy college debt, “What do you fear?” The sweet hyper active epidemiologist, “I fear getting old or sick, or people around me getting old or sick, or people I know dying, (I haven’t known many)…”
The extroverted diplomat, risk taker extraordinaire, known for jumping out of moving train windows backward, “Hmm, fear…I guess I am somewhat fearful of the unknown, events in the future and the fact that a freak accident could occur on any day when you least expect it—like a car accident or something horrible that happens to me or my family.”
The prophet Isaiah delivered God’s message to
I was surprised and impressed with the responses I got from the two students. I had expected them to be worried about money, the economy and permanent jobs. Instead it was mostly the love of family and the loss of family that concerned them. Surely they are redeemed and just don’t know it.
All praise and honor to God for sending his son Jesus the light of the world to show himself to us so that we could understand his love for us.
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