IN A BIND

Well, I was going to move on from the economy but it looks like the economy is continuing to be an impact player without bounds. I suppose the recent downgrading of American credit is evidence that consequences can happen to the government too. We all know that if you continuously spend more than you have, you will eventually run into financial trouble. The government has escaped it for a long time but has pushed its credit too far this time. Meanwhile, far too many people are still out of work and the economy is having a difficult time gaining any footing.

Not only is all of this a good financial lesson for us, but it is a spiritual lesson too. We tend to take our faith for granted, assuming that we will always have enough faith to draw on. Yet, as life continues to draw and draw from our faith, our spiritual life can run a deficit too. The same is true with our character.

Taking our blessings for granted, whether that is in finances or faith, is a mistake that often has delayed effects. Yet when the effects hit, the consequences can be very hard to deal with and recover from. As bad as the economy may be to recover from, recovery from a faith crisis can be even tougher. We are now at a place to where if we confiscate all the money that billionaires and millionaires make a year (240 billion), we would only have enough money to run the government for three weeks. We don’t have a lot of good options with our government spending. We need to make sure that we don’t also box ourselves in with our spiritual life by taking our faith blessings for granted, or that will become overdrawn as well.