The Economic Crisis - Maybe A Good Thing?

All we have been hearing about lately is how awful the economic crisis is. I don't disagree, especially when I think of retired couples who live off their savings investments and now hear that they are only receiving 1/2 of what they were receiving on a monthly basis.

It troubles me tremendously to see the grief that people are experiencing regarding the loss of jobs, the loss of insurance benefits, and the fear that has engulfed so many, especially when they don't know how they will provide for the needs.

This disaster has humbled so many people who thought they were in complete control of their lives, now only to feel as if the rug has been pulled out from underneath them. They feel helpless, and for many, their dreams have now been crumbled. What they cherished has now been taken away from them due to no fault of their own.

Then I began to think about why such a thing has happened. I don't mean placing the blame on the government, or on politicians, but exploring what God has planned for this event in our lives.

I began to contemplate what benefit would a society have by having so much taken away from it.

Then I began to think about our lives here in America. I pondered the idea that maybe we have so much that we don't appreciate what we have. Maybe our surplus has created problems themselves. Have we been so spoiled that we don't even realize what we have., or what we have done to ourselves.

Do we spoil ourselves beyond what is modest, what is really "Needed," while others have nothing, others struggle, and think nothing about it.

I was once told that Americans have more than any other culture, yet appear the most unhappy.

Why is that......

What in life really makes us happy? Does money really have anything to do with it? If so, why then do the families in Guatemala, whom we have met, and whom having nothing, appeared so joyful and happy. If fact, my children commented one summer that those children that lived in the villages were the happiest children they had ever seen.

Maybe, this is a wake-up call for us. Maybe this is a way for God to call out to us, asking for us to hand over our fears, our lives, our trust to Him.

Maybe, this is an opportunity to gain freedom from the shackles of Money, Things, Objects, and reunite with a simplistic lifestyle.

Maybe, just maybe, for many, this is an opportunity to turn back to God, reunite in communion with Jesus, purge our temptations from our "old" lives, and live a simple, peaceful, joyful life.

Maybe, just maybe, for some, this is an opportunity to start over, and begin a preparation for an eternal life with God.

I can recall the words of a very holy man who once stated:

It takes struggle and pain to change a man from a man of the world to a heavenly man.

It takes struggle and pain to change a man from self-centeredness to a man of empathy and compassion.

It takes struggle and pain to truly value the pleasures and joys in life, since without the contrast, the vast beauty cannot be seen.