Presbyterian Church of the Lakes

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Reality Check

The big question on the minds of so many people that are struggling with is: “ Why did our financial world collapsed?” What went wrong with an economy as big as ours that could just start a death spiral downwards?

There are probably many answers to this question but I believe one of them is the fact that basic economic data was completely ignored. CEO’s and board members of huge companies just did not want to see what the numbers were and it even happened that a concerned accountant was fired because of his presentation of the financial reality in a company.

In some ways we sometimes do the same with our own personal finances where we just try to ignore the numbers and continue to live as if our money will never run out. When the foreclosure or repossession notice comes, we are surprised and shocked, and the response will many times be “ I did not think it was that bad”

It is an interesting habit that we so many times will try to ignore reality. We just do not want to “ see” how it really is for it may cause us stress, unhappiness and discomfort. So by just ignoring the facts we create a world that is in a way completely lost of reality and will eventually fail us at some stage.

More dangerous than economic “blindness” is when we create an unrealistic perception of God. Because certain passages in scripture make us feel uncomfortable , uneasy or guilty, we choose to ignore them. Because we want God to see things our way we create a gospel that is not true to it’s nature but more a reflection of what we want to see it say.

Maybe this economic meltdown is not only an opportunity for us to take a hard look at the way we do our finances but also to revisit the way we deal with other truths. Maybe we can learn from this economic experience, that we cannot ignore the numbers and the reality of basic economics that we also cannot ignore the “ numbers” or truths given to us in God’s word. Maybe it is time to make a

balance sheet of our life and compare it with the reality of the Gospel.

For irresponsible financial practices there is an economic penalty to pay but for the irresponsible handling of God’s Word there are much more dangerous and permanent consequences.

No one can ever hide from the truth.