A third grader's lesson in economics

 Once again I am back in my deer stand trying to make sense of what our elected politicians are doing or maybe the real question should be, trying to do with our economy.

When we hear of their reckless spending policies I wonder not if, but when, and where will it all lead us as a nation.

As I contemplate these serious implications, my mind goes back about 40 years when Ruth and I spent a few months in the country of Zimbabwe in southern Africa.

We went there with the idea of helping a ministry with a building project.

As a little side note, the way we got there is interesting.

Ruth and I have spent over 40 years traveling to different parts of the globe either helping with building projects or teaching.

The way that we are guided to these projects starts with a prayer something like this; "Lord, there is someone on this planet praying and asking you to send someone with my skills and talents to help them fulfil their mission. I am asking you to get us connected so I can be the answer to their prayers."

I have never heard too many people pray that prayer before, but with the motivation to be the answer to someone's prayers, how can you miss? Needless to say, we have been to some interesting places and have had some exciting and fulfilling experiences.

Late in the fall of 1985 I heard of a mission base in Zimbabwe, southern Africa that had a need for someone with building skills. Upon hearing of that need I checked on the plane fare to Zimbabwe. After finding the cost of tickets, I dismissed the idea, it was more than we could afford.

But, day after day and night after night I couldn't get the need out of my mind and so one night I went to the phone and called the mission base in the capitol city.

As it turned out the staff was just walking out of a morning prayer meeting when the phone rang. The director answered the phone and after some formalities I asked him what he was praying for. He said, "We have been praying for three years for someone to come and help us with this building project and no one has come."

I answered, "I don't know how, but I will come." A short time later some friends from church heard about our dilemma and they came up with the money.

Now, back to my lesson in elementary economics. 

Where ever we have traveled in the world we have had to exchange U.S. dollars for their currency. Here is what we learned. Normally the amount of our dollars that it would take to buy a dozen eggs would be exchanged for the amount of money that it would take to buy a dozen eggs in their currency.

The exchange rate at that time was one American dollar for one Zimbabwean dollar. One Zimbabwean dollar would buy you a dozen eggs.

Let me tell you what has happened in that country since that day and the lesson that we can learn from it.

Zimbabwe had just had a civil war and the country exchanged Democracy for Socialism. 

The government started printing money to fund their agenda and they printed lots of it.

It wasn't long before the exchange rate went to one American dollar for 500 Zimbabwean dollars.

They printed more money to try to print their way out of their problem, but it only got worse. 

Eventually over a few short years here is what happened.

I have a currency collection with currency from about half of the countries in the World. My son adds to that collection on birthdays. 

One birthday I received a Zimbabwean bank note from my son Jeff for 200,000,000,000 dollars, that's 200 trillion dollars and it had an expiration date. By the way, that note would buy 3 eggs.

Shortly after that the whole monetary system collapsed and the country adopted the American dollar for their medium of exchange. 

I hope that history doesn't repeat itself.

Someone once said something like this, "One thing that we can learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history."

Now that I have penned these words I can get back to deer hunting.

Righteous Indignation

 In the eleventh chapter of Mark we see Jesus approaching Jerusalem with the express purpose of proclaiming himself as the long awaited Messiah.

In contrast to a conquering king who would ride in on a white stallion he makes his entrance as a humble peaceful servant riding on a lowly donkey.

He is fully aware of his mission to earth to be killed as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of all mankind.

One of the first places that he visits upon his arrival is the temple where sacrificial lambs are being bought and sold for Passover. 

The outer courts of the temple was to be a place set-aside for the gentile believers so they could have a place to pray.

Instead, Jesus finds that vendors have taken over the space to turn it into a market place.

Jews and gentiles were bringing their lambs to be offered as sacrifices only to find that in order to qualify they must be inspected by temple priests to see if they have any physical defects. 

Upon close inspection these worshipers found that their lambs failed to meet the standards of the temple priests. The good news though, according to the priest, was that a perfect lamb could be purchased from them.

There was a small technicality in that their currency would have to be exchanged for temple currency. Of  course the exchange rate was highly inflated but if one wanted to make his sacrifice those were the terms.

After exchanging their currency they found that the price of a acceptable lamb was also inflated.

This is the reason that Jesus gets upset and messes things up in that market environment and calls the place a den of thieves. 

While reading this account and thinking about it I had an interesting thought.

Thinking back about 30 years or so I thought about the shepherds who raised sheep around Bethlehem.

If you remember, Jesus was born in a stable or barn in Bethlehem that was used to shelter livestock probably during inclement weather.

I was wonder if lambs were born in this same stable where Jesus, the lamb of God was born.

I then wondered was it possible that here in Bethlehem the temple priests purchased their lambs that they sold for Passover lambs that had actually been born in the same stable that Jesus the lamb of God was born.

As I study the scriptures I find that their are no coincidences in God's economy. 

This sounds like something that God would orchestrate.