These are definitely times that test your faith. And not just in the sense of questioning what you believe about God or is there a God. We say we believe God is in control, or at least I say that. And as cliche as it sounds to even type, it really is easy to live like we believe when times are good. But say the DOW dives below 10,000 and your stock portfolio's daily change is displayed in bright red negative numbers. And you know it's not cause you picked bad investments, but just because there is so much uncertainty out there that people are panicking and pulling out their money and it's dragging you down with them. So you hem and haw and almost click "sell all" a thousand times, but hold on to some and then do sell some and still you wonder, will it drop more tomorrow? What if it does? Come ON! And then I remember who the money all belongs to, and it's not really me. Not, it's not Uncle Sam, either, although he seems to think he has rights to it all!

But dern it all, if it doesn't all belong to that same God whom I profess to trust in. He says the cattle on a thousand hills are His, and so they are. And if cattle was the currency of the day, then in modern language He'd say every single penny moving up and down and around the globe belongs to me. And so it does. Which makes the volatility a little less frightening. Because if He is who He says He is and He does what He says He'll do, then He'll take care of me. He promises to do so. And my job is to be the best possible steward that I can be (which still is no easy task) and to not join the mass of panic. To literally possess something called "peace which surpasses understanding." It goes without saying (yet I still say it), that exhibiting peace in today's financial crisis will most definitely surpass the understanding of everyone around you.

So, I sit here tonite, calling on the accountability of all those I call friends, families and a few strangers and tell you that I do believe this God of mine. He's come through in miraculous ways before. And if the world reaches such a state that we all go become beet farmers in rural America, then we'll have to learn to be content to eat lots of beets. They do have nutritional value, after all...