Worries

Originally: 3/17/08

I know some of you may be busy at work this morning, preparing for a short week, and a weekend of celebrations. But I had to take the time to write at least one of the morning meditations I read today; they were all so appropriate to today.
When I retired I received Between Sundays as a gift, and began to read it daily. Today’s meditation is from week 41, so it should have nothing to do with Easter, yet it is so relevant:


You Are Not Your Own

Ye are bought with a price – 1Cor 6:20

It is an imaginary scene – and yet it is real: the auctioneer in his gibberish shouts out the bids, and the slavemasters peer at the slave with discriminating eyes, wanting the most for their money. The slave, standing alone, shudders as someone shouts out a bid. She knows that one. He is known for his intolerance and his abuse. “Going once … going twice …”.

Then, just before the dreaded cry “Sold!” seals her fate, a strong voice shouts out a bid from the back of the crowd, and the other slavemasters gasp. No one has ever paid that much for a slave!

Hurriedly the stranger steps up to claim his newest possession. He helps her from the auction block, removes her shackles, looks into her eyes, and says, “Go free.”
I cannot begin to imagine the horror of actually standing on an auction block. Yet, as Christians, this is our story. We were enslaved to serve the master of sin, who abused us by his evil devices. There, in our weakness and bondage, we waited. Then Christ came. He paid the highest price one could pay.

Is it any wonder why we should serve him with our very lives? He loved us and bought us when no one else could see our worth.

Father, once we were slaves to a master we could not escape from. But you have set us free!
Between Sundays by Shawn Craig Monday, Week 41.


Today, the headlines in the Wall Street Journal scream out “Bear Sold in Fire Sale”. The stock which traded at $70 last week was sold for $2 a share, with government backing yesterday because “you have to do a deal today; we may not be there tomorrow to back you up”. With a year-end book value of $84/share, employees complained “this building is worth $8/share”. Financiers in the US and Europe expect “the pain is likely to extend into 2009”. “The Fed also made the rare move of lending directly to securities dealers, the first time it has done so since the 1930s.” The market just opened down 150 points.

So much to worry about, yet also in today’s readings was this:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Yea, wait for the Lord!
Psalm 27 1, 14

How appropriate. Hope you have a worry-free day, and a blessed Easter week. Remember, we have already been saved from the worst that could happen.