Markets in Meltdown

This morning we woke up to the news that the global economy is leaning over the precipice again. Having recently bailed out Greece from economic ruin, all eyes are now on Italy and Spain. Mr Barroso, the President of the European Commission has 'deep concern' about the two nations...

Just a few days after America's politicians voted the nation out of its economic oblivion, the world stock markets are suffering from panic attacks. There is an air of real and very deep gloom in the world stock exchanges.

Our failing economies are like toothaches which won't go away - even after multiple trips to the dentist. There is a feeling we are running out of dentists to turn to. And on top of all that, our margin of hope in economic recovery feels as slim as it did when the pain started two years ago.

And it's not just economists and politicians who are being pushed beyond their pain threshold. Those of us who zone out of the complicated arguments, meaningless percentages and inflated sums being thrown across the news bulletins, tune in again when words like 'pension', 'savings' and 'unemployment' are thrown in to the conversation. And that's because financial recessions aren't just games economists play; eventually they touch on our lives and emotions. It's not just about our standard of living; it's also about our sense of security.

These are economic earth tremors that shake the very foundations of our being. And anyone who has ever been in the mildest tremor will know something of that sense of helplessness that it creates. In the middle of an earthquake, there is simply nowhere else to go.

In our current financial uncertainties it can be hard to tell the difference between realism and defeatism. But if faith in God has anything to say in all of this, it has to find both a way and indeed the vocabulary, to remind us - and the rest of the world - that we are worth much more than the abundance of the things we possess.