Most of us are aware of the news that bombards us each day concerning the state of the economy both here in the U.S. and around the world. We are familiar with terms like “global recession,” “economic downturn” and “financial crisis,” even though we do not fully understand them.

Companies have laid off employees and reduced spending. Their profits are down from the last quarter or last year (almost every financial fact is based on the “previous quarter” or “the same quarter last year”). People who are out of work are spending less because they have less to spend. Those who still have their jobs are more cautious about their spending habits. Simply put, there is less money to spend and so the whole problem centers itself around money or the lack of it.

So where did all the money go? No one burned it! It didn’t just blow away in the wind! You didn’t “lose” money in your 401K, your mutual fund retirement account, or your investments. The money is not “lost.” It is still in existence. The fact is, someone else has it now!

We, the American people, have put our trust in money and in other people who were supposedly going to make more money for us. Many of those money managers proved to not be trustworthy because they kept our money. But money itself is not worthy of our trust either. All of our currency, both coin and paper, have the words “In God We Trust” written on them. It’s ironic and sad that we trust more in the money than in the God we claim to trust. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. We have all witnessed that. Money is not worthy of our trust; only God is. We wouldn’t be in this mess today if we would only trust God, who alone is worthy. The choice is yours. Trust money and material things which eventually fail us, or trust in the God of all creation, who never fails.

Gordon Loverink

Hollandale