Sowers Class

Catch of the Day

Sign of the times by John Fischer A writer for the Los Angeles Times ended his article today on Super Bowl ads by remarking on the Bud Light commercial that ended with a guy being thrown out of a second story window. "Next, you'll be saying they will lay off guys who sit around and review commercials." He concluded. "Don't be ridic…. (Editor's note: This review has been ended because of cutbacks. We wish the writer success in his future endeavors.)"
* There's no reason to believe this is a joke. Yesterday I heard that the Times just cut 500 jobs. Many are saying it's going to get worse before it gets better. The economy right now feels a little like an airplane in a tailspin; and we wonder when or if the engines will kick in and allow us to pull out of this free fall before we all hit the ground.
What should the spiritual response to this be? Just be cool, everything's in God's hands? I'm not so sure it's that easy.
Fear is most likely the biggest obstacle. I know it is for me. Fear is a natural human emotion and not very easy to control, even though Jesus and His angels often said, "Fear not." It's hard to tell yourself not to be afraid. But fear can also be a healthy motivation to change. We let fear get the best of us when we allow ourselves to be frozen by it. If fear creates inactivity in us, it has succeeded in overcoming us. But if, instead, we use fear to motivate ourselves to step out in spite of our fear and seek creative alternatives to our problems, then we are actually turning fear into a positive force. It can be done.
The storm is raging, the boat, carrying the disciples, is in peril, but Jesus is out on the water. You can brace yourself in fear on the boat, or get out of the boat and go join Jesus on the water. On the boat there's just fear and paralysis. On the water, there may be fear, too, but there's also one heck of an adventure waiting for you! So what will it be?