What a week!

Lately, life has been a blur. The weeks seem to pass like days, and the days like hours. This week, instead of going to the regular chapel in Bush Chapel, I went to an alternative chapel called Tyrannus Hall which is located in the new Graves building in a lecture hall. I really enjoy going to this intense Bible study; a different Religion Department Professor will speak for an entire week on a specific passage or principle in the Bible. I love delving deeper into what I've already read and seeing sybolisms or other meanings I hadn't thought of. It's like peeling an onion - you can just take it for it's outer worth and leave it like that and still enjoy it as an onion, or you can continue to peel back the layers and learn more and more. No matter the layer you're on, the Word of God is always so amazing.

I want to talk on one thing that has perturbed me this week: the average Christian's view of economics. All week everyone on campus has been talking about the 'greatest economic crash since the Great Depression' that took place over last weekend. Firstly, the majority of these people talking about it don't understand what happened or why it happened. This crisis has been building for the past year now in the housing market. Families took out Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) to buy houses they couldn't afford. Then after a year when the interest rate on the loan went up, they couldn't pay back the loan and had to sell short or get foreclosed on. The banks who owned all these loans sold them to major insurance companies like AIG, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, etc. Thus, when this massive group of people couldn't pay back the loan to the bank, the problem stemmed all the way up to the top and caused this housing bubble to burst. Economists predicted months ago that this would happen. Granted, in the history of the U.S. housing market, never have homes depreciated in value so much at such a rate and in looking at the numbers it very well may have been the greatest crash on Wall St. since the GD, HOWEVER (and there's always a however), that's certainly NOT cause for panic. Firstly, this is a free market; this is the beauty of capitalism! Any regular market has its ups and downs, obviously some higher than others, that's natural. Secondly, turn off the sensationalized media! The only way they sell papers is by blowing up the problem greater than what it truly is; this is true in the vast majority of all news stories. Instead of getting your information from the news, ask an expert, perhaps an economics professor or someone that can clearly explain the situation without bias. Thirdly, the world is not coming to an end merely because a major financial institution is having problems. People keep screaming, "It's the end times!". It's been the "end times" for the past 2,000 years! No man knows when Christ will return, so stop worrying about it and putting fear into others and do the last order Christ gave us: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matt. 28:19)

Anyway today I had an awesome English class. For those of you who don't know, I sit on the FIRST row. It's rather difficult to sit on the first row of an English class at 7am, but I think that is what helps keep me awake at times. Being here in Florida, I often like to remove my flip flops (only in sanitary areas though!) and I did so for this class, resting one foot on top of the other on one of my flip flops. We were assigned a reading to annotate in class and so I started reading. Then my professor, Mrs. Crutchfield, asked to see my Bible. I had no idea why, it was strange because she had just been reading out of her own Bible sitting on her desk! She looked up a verse and handed my Bible back to me, pointed at a verse and said that as she looked down at my feet, God reminded her of a verse He had given her for me; she said He had kept reminding her and that He would't let her forget. I sat down in my chair and read the verse she had pointed to. The verse was Isaiah 52:7; it says:

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'"

After reading it, I was unsure as to what to say. After class, she stopped me and said "God has great plans for your life, He's going to use you in great ways." So you know, I have not yet told her anything about my trips to Africa or AHM. I was just speechless after it all. In thinking on it, this was God's way of encouraging me to press on and reminding me of what lay ahead. As I continue to press foward, the path ahead seems to grow more difficult. Have you ever just thought on such things as fate? Destiny? Purpose? I think a lot about destiny, it's something that's always floating around up there. Where am I going? What am I becoming? What will I do? Though I already have a good idea on the next step in my life, anything past that is a mystery. Whatever it is, I look forward to it with full anticipation that I will conquer it victoriously.