The world as we know it

.."It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine..."

For those of you who lack the 80's music influence that I had, this is a music video and some lyrics from the song "It's the End of The World as We Know It" by R.E.M. I can't understand all the lyrics or the video, but I can understand the chorus. These words ring in my head as I think about gas prices closing in at $4.00/gal., with rumors of it hitting $7.00/gal in the coming years. That being the case, then it is the "end of the world as we know it". So do you feel fine? How does it feel when everything we understood to be our security begins to dissolve away? How many of us could afford to drive to work at $7.00/gal? Or worse yet, there could be such a shortage of gas that our money will no longer help us in filling our tanks. So we may need to find other ways to get to work. Walking, running, horse back riding, bicycle. But then I would guess that most of our employers need gas to stay in business, so our jobs might not be there waiting when we gallop in on Trigger. So then what? No job, no heath insurance, no car, no income, no house, no security. In a matter of months we could find all that we've been collectively working for is gone. The promises of a good education, hard work, and a savings account not fulfilled because our dependency on oil and transportation has become too great.

I say all this to say this: Have we created a god?

You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3) This is God's first commandment!

Here is a definition of a god: a person or thing of supreme value. I'd say that definition qualifies most of us for having a god before God. I'm not trying to be one of those "End of Times" Christians, but I am not proud of the fact that my life has been in pursuit of security apart from the security I'm told to pursue in the Bible. And it does not take a whole lot of imagination to play this gas shortage scenario out into a full blown crisis. But one good thing about a crisis is that it helps to show us what is truly important, and where our security is really found. So I'll continue on like most other people and hope gas prices fall and everything returns to normal. But I will also use these stressful times as God's reminder that He may just want us to "Be still and know that He is God"! (Psalms 46:10)