Its good to know, as a follower of Jesus, that I can have peace in uncertain times. Daniel and I live in the city of Charlotte...we love urban living and love living in the "Queen City". Charlotte is the 2nd biggest banking city in the country...of course NYC is the country's financial capital. And I am sure most of you are aware that our country has been under great economic distress over the past several months and most importantly these last couple of weeks with the stock market, unstable investment banks, banks going under and government control of things on Wall Street. Bank of America and Wachovia are the two biggest banks that call Charlotte home. Today rocked the world's of many in our quant little city...Wachovia has been bought for $1 a share by Citi-Group. Many, many of our friends and family are Wachovia employees. This buy-out can and will have an extreme effect on our city's economy...not to mention the lives of our many friends and family members. This is a hard hit for our city especially as there are many unknown answers for Wachovia and the transition, not to mention the rest of the market and other banks that might have similar fates. Not only has this happened today but the market dropped 700+ points which is the lowest that it has been in a long time and Charlotte has no more gas! Seriously, its a crazy pandemic around these parts....many, many gas stations are out of gas and stations that do have it have absurd prices and lines hours long--this is not an exaggeration by any stretch. Luckily Daniel and I are still at half-tanks...hopefully the gas will come in the next couple of days, but they have been saying that for a week now....all this is due to Hurricane Ike.
Daniel and I were just talking and feeling for our many friends and his brother who, no doubt, will have many decisions to make about finding other jobs, moving, etc. There are just so many unknowns. It reminded me as I said on my first line that though we live in this world we can have the peace that comes from knowing that there is a greater Kingdom at hand...the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is constantly battling the kingdom of this world--so many are caught up with the love of money, greed, financial ruin, the lie in the American Dream will fully satisfy the soul, etc. We are called to live in such a different way--to live in the Kingdom of God, not of this world.
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Thanks for the great reminder that we do live in a kingdom that cannot be shaken! Ryan picked a great day to be in meetings all day (unavailable to talk to) and he tells me to keep on eye on his Ameritrade account and let him know if there are any huge changes. Can we say...slight panic on my part, lots of texting him, probably worrying him and he can't even text back. Oh well, tomorrow's a new day! Thank goodness!
James, that is awful about the gas. Ride bikes, carpool, or whatever b/c this weekend you can get (cheap) gas in burlington... just keep enough to come!!! Also, Raleigh was very low on gas and I noticed that several gas stations had gotten gas so hopefully this won't be an issue for long. Amazing what we take for granted!
Amen to all that! It's such a relief to know that this world isn't all there is...especially when it's such a mess!!! Sorry to hear about the gas - we've been very insulated from any problems with that up here...thankfully!
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