| Who are you Walking with? |
Tags: Community & Love
| Thursday, 12 March 2009 09:31 |
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March 2009 "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." Keynes. No matter whom you are or what resources you have marshalled, the irrationality of the global market can outlast your best-laid-plans. The most basic definition of solvency is the ability to pay off debt. But perhaps, your definition of solvency has expanded as you’ve set your sights on achieving more. “Solvency” for you now might include a large income, a home and a nest egg. Certainly some of our friends in the larger world would have much more humble ambitions. But even if we narrow the definition, should solvency alone be our motivation? Why are we doing what we do: love of ourselves (to obtain our definition of success, self-esteem or society’s respect) or love of Him? Sometimes a person who has toiled…must leave all to be enjoyed to a person who did not toil for it.… What has a person from all of his toil and strain with which one toils beneath the sun? For all one’s days are full of pain, and one’s work is a vexation; even in the night one’s mind does not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment from all their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can have enjoyment? -- Ecclesiastes 2:21-25 RSV It is always possible that we might “lose it all” through error or betrayal, through our own greed, or through an economic system which defies our understanding. The recent shifting uncertainty in our world brings the fear and anxiety of losing what we’ve worked for to the surface. These emotions are indicators of what we expected from life, of what we hold dear. The message we find in Ecclesiastes is that the toil itself should have a deeper sense of purpose, beyond the wealth the toil secures. When our reward is the satisfaction of living in this moment with God, then we cannot “lose it all”. As Augustine once said, “Love God, and do as you please.” Maybe freedom entails understanding this: It is not where you are walking to that matters, but who you are walking with. Blessings,  Tom Volume 18 Issue 2 Upcoming Events: CIF Open House to celebrate our new location - March 12th 2009 from 10am – 6pm. Presentations at 12:20pm and 5:20pm CIF Breakfasts 7:30am at the Vancouver Club (915 W Hastings St) April 3rd, 2009 - with Guest Speaker Chris Hornibrook Annual Wallet Open at Country Meadows Golf Course - June 24th, 2009 To RSVP call 604-687-7292 or email events@cityinfocus.ca. |