c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The ferry is gliding through the still waters of Puget Sound. In the distance, the warm orange glow of sunset reflects off the clouds.

I am heading back to my island home after a busy weekend in Seattle spent with artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians _ thoughtful creatives for whom God is of central importance. We gathered to reflect on the spiritual, intellectual and creative impoverishments of Western culture. We’re asking what we can and should do about it.

For three glorious, refreshing days, I was able to hold at bay the political animals with their yapping and nipping, but now the cacophonous sounds of shrill, hostile, frivolous, mostly hollow rhetoric have returned with a vengeance.

The depth of our global and national economic crisis cannot be overstated. I’m sobered by the two-page ad placed by the Peter Peterson Foundation in The New York Times that warns, “As disruptive and damaging as today’s mortgage sub-prime crisis is, we’re looking at a super sub-prime” crisis, which, if left unaddressed, will hurt many more Americans _ and hurt much worse … Each household’s share of the nation’s $53 trillion debt is $455,000 _ almost 10 times the median household income. This is unfinanceable.”

My wife and I just bought a home that I will be moving into over the next few days. These are busy days lived out against the backdrop of financial woe, and it seems an odd time to be buying a house.

But I just received a phone call that forced everything into perspective. A young working mother with three kids died Sunday night.

She had woken up and worshipped in our little community church. Her warm smile, animated conversation and optimistic outlook have always lifted everybody’s spirits. She went down to see her friends and welcome visitors at our after-church coffee hour and then was off to help with a community clothing drive that afternoon.

That night, after dinner, she lay down on the couch to watch a movie with her family. When the movie was finished, she didn’t wake up. The medical professionals suspect the problem has something to do with her pacemaker; she had an appointment to inspect it this week.

Catholic writer Henri Nouwen once said he was always frustrated with the interruptions in his ministry _ until he realized the interruptions were his ministry.

My plans to move this week have been interrupted. Instead of moving, I will be officiating at a funeral on Saturday.

When I get off the ferry, I will go to be with the father who is trying to figure out how to raise three kids, survive financially without his wife’s income and more importantly, how to survive without her. She was the glue that held the family together.

We will call our community church together for prayer. We will arrange for meals for the next month or so. We will put together a financial advisory team to help the dad develop a plan for moving forward. We’ve arranged for a psychologist to meet with dad and the kids.

I do not wish to minimize our national and political and economic crisis, but I think the degree to which they have become our daily preoccupation is also a way of gauging our priorities.

Jesus stated very clearly what our priorities are supposed to be. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” And, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus also warned that the greatest threat to our well-being was the pursuit of material things, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear,” he cautioned. “ … But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

When the pursuit of our material well-being is our priority, our daily interactions with God and other people will seem like inconvenient interruptions.

This is a good time to remember that loving God and each other is our first task. In these anxious times, love is one investment we can all make, and it will reap dividends that cannot be taken away.

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)

KRE/JM END STAUB725 words

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