Confidence

New Yorkers are confident.  Others will often see them as arrogant, but I really don’t think this is, in the main, a accurate statement.   Given the challenges, obstacles, and difficulties, survivors have reason to be confident.  They have taken on some of the toughest competition and made it.  They have struggled to make it against the odds, and now they are exceptions.  Among the best are those who made it to the top; their confidence knows very few limits.
 
One needs confidence in order to survive, especially in New York.  Yet I fear our dependence on it.  It is as if we try to extend our confidence into every aspect of life.  It is almost as if we becoming functional atheist, confining Divinity to a singular corner of our lives called spirituality.  We don’t need God in the short term because everything is ok.  Our insurance coverage is paid up, our retirement plan is in good shape, and we have a little nest egg in the bank.  Even if we don’t have the money, the insurance barely covers our needs, and there is little or no retirement, we always have our credit cards.  Life isn’t, and shouldn’t be too risky!
 
To me, you, and others who are falling into this trap there is a ongoing warning; “Now listen to God's Message, you scoffers, you who rule this people in Jerusalem.  You say, ‘We've taken out good life insurance.  We've hedged all our bets, covered all our bases.  No disaster can touch us.  We've thought of everything.  We're advised by the experts.  We're set.’”  (Isaiah 28.14, 15)  You think you are prepared, but are you?
 
In scheme of what is going on in your life and mine, do our preparation really help?  Will any preparation deal with our fears and doubts?  Does knowing the future change the mountains and valleys of our emotions?  Has any we have done change the pain and anguish associated with illness or death?
 
Confidence is a gift of God.  It comes with the dawn.  It may be different than what we think.