Interesting Parallels

I attended a luncheon yesterday where John Stossel spoke. The self-described libertarian and Emmy award-winning anchor of 20/20 talked about the economy and made some interesting points:

*When we're scared, we vote for the government to help us, despite the fact that competition protects us better than the government. As an example, he used the Senate's 100-0 vote to have federal airport security following 9/11. Controlled chaos has ensued. But, because it's the government, rather than a private company, we can't exactly fire them or terminate the "contract."

*Capitalism works. It sorts things out. But it's not intuitive.

*He asked whether anyone remembered what the stock market was in 1982. He said that it was at 860, that interest was at 15%, and that it cost 21% to borrow money. So what's so bad about today?

Before you leave thinking that I have changed this into a political blog, let me assure you that I have no intentions of changing the focus of this blog. The whole reason the above-mentioned ideas have continued to ramble through my mind since lunch yesterday is that I see parallels between them and my walk.

How many times have I run to my mother or other earthly authority figures to solve my problems instead of turning straight to God?

How often do I get stuck on how counterintuitive grace is, thinking that I can do something to earn it?

How often have I gotten riled up by a lesser drama that won't be remembered? And how few times have I sensed the urgency of spreading the gospel?

I don't expect to solve the economic issues of the day. But I have new insight into what I should be working on in my own life.