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Security
"Some nations boast of their armies and weapons
but we boast in the Lord our God. Those nations
will fall and collapse, but we will rise up and
stand firm." The United States military budget is said to exceed the combined military budget of more than 80 percent of all the combined budgets of other nations. There is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that America is the only standing world power and militarily no other nation can stand against us. Yet as we look at our nations' youth we find a very chaotic nation; a nation that consumes over 60 percent of the world's production of narcotics. A nation where 88,000 teenage girls will get pregnant in the next thirty days; 3,250,000 teenagers will consume drugs in the same thirty days; and a nation where every 17 seconds a teenager attempts suicide. All these statistics point to not a world power, but a sick nation. Why? I suggest that the reason for the above lies in our concept of security. We are consumed with finding security in the stock market, in our workplace, in a retirement account, and in our wealth, but we fail to realize that each and every one of these is temporal. At some moment in life most of us have experienced the loss of something we thought was very secure. We have lost jobs, seen the stock market crash, lost homes, and some have lost their greatest asset their children. We find security in everything the world has to offer, and at times pay dearly for it. We sacrifice our families for our jobs; we sacrifice our health to accumulate wealth, only to find that sooner or later we have to spend that wealth to recuperate our health. The crash of Enron and the experience of seeing thousands of hard working Americans loose their entire retirement has taught America that even that which seems very secure can disappear in the blink of an eye. Our verse today teaches us that our only security lies in our dependence on our Creator. We spend our entire lives trying to figure out the meaning to our life, yet how can we know what we were created for if we did not create ourselves? Only a creator knows what he/she created something for. Therefore, as we go through life it will serve us well to seek God's face not only for our security but also for the meaning to our lives. Then, and only then, are we able to experience true security. Lord, give me a hunger for your Word so that I can truly know what I am created for, and then I will be able to find meaning to my life. Meditation: Take an inventory of your life and ask yourself where and in what you find your security.
Jorge L. Valdes, Ph.D.
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