Everyone seems to be talking about the economy these days, and no one seems to have any hope, only more doom and gloom.  While I do not have some sort of false sense that we will wake up 6 months from now and everything will be great, I do have hope for the future.  I have hope in part because challenges can be seen as a problem, or a welcomed chance to ask difficult questions and come up with creative solutions.  Andy Clouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (InterVarsity Press) and the curator of www.culture-making.com wrote an article for Christianity Today that I feel needs to be read and preached in churches all across the country who are filled with people struggling to find hope.  While some churches have allowed themselves to be consumed by the recent political campaigns and issues that were voted on, this issue of the economy crosses all barriers that exist in the church.  The article is a little long, but please stick with it until the end  "Why I am hopeful" at ChristianityToday.com

Posted: November 13th, 2008 under Family.
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I  subscribe to the ELCA Hunger Rumblings Blog which is a great source to find out what is going on in the world to help those who are without food and other basic necessities of life both in the US and abroad.  Each week I read statistics like, "1 in 6 people in the world will be hungry today and will go without food."  Below is an excerpt from a post made this week.  That I found to be profound and so I share them with you.   

"We could choose to despair over the problems of the world. We could choose to be silent about the injustices we see. We could choose to close eyes to the pain of others and become more isolated and insular as the threats of the economy loom.
Or we could choose to hope. We could choose to speak. We could choose to see the brokenness—remembering that wounds are also doors for opportunity, for transformation, reconciliation and healing. We could choose to take the chaos that lies before us, and use it to be creative, to reshape a world in which people are more valuable than money."

Posted: November 11th, 2008 under Family.
Comments: 2