The Center Will Hold

As I write this post, the stock market is down 422 points. I have also just started reading Mark Steyn's new book After America; Get Ready for Armageddon. Not surprisingly, at the moment it looks like the center cannot hold. But that begs the question, what or who is the center? The answer to that question requires reading something very different.

Pastor John Soper writes in Alliance Life magazine that the world has always been a scary place. To the extent that we have not lived in scary times in this country, it's a historical anomaly. He poses three questions to ask ourselves each morning to address living in these uncertain times:

1. Today, will I live for myself or others?  As Christians, we are called to live for Christ and He lives for others. Will we?

2. Will I live for time or eternity?  He quotes St. Paul's challenge to focus on things not seen and act accordingly, rather than the things that bring short term satisfaction in this world. More succinctly, will we live today to store up treasures in heaven or on earth? The people who have made a lasting impact on this world are the ones who have done the former.

3. Will I live my life by fear or by faith?  Fear is crippling. It distorts our emotions and relationships and even our bodies. Jesus came to set us free: perfect love casts out fear. I John 4:18. But we have to chose which way on a daily, sometimes minute-to-minute basis.

Doing the above every day isn't easy - it certainly isn't for me. It is the way of faith, however, and when we decided to do it His way on a daily basis, no matter how dire the circumstances around us, the center will hold, because Christ is the Center of this wildly turning world.

www.alliancelife.org/article.php?id=622