"God beholds you. He calls you by your name. He sees you and understands you as He made you. He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses. He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow.
He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms. He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears. He looks tenderly upon you. He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing.
You do not love yourself better than He loves you. You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.
Let us feel what we really are— sinners attempting great things. Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our eternal good.
The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God."
John Henry Newman
"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Matthew 11:30
The hawkish Fed, economic troubles in Europe and the UK, and a fresh appreciation of risk, triggered heavy selling in the equity and commodity markets.
The VIX rose sharply as one might expect on a 'risk off' day.
A look at the stock index charts, especially the SP 500 futures, shows that we retested the prior second low intraday.
If we break further past that low and stick a close or two down that way, things could get interesting, quickly.
Gold and silver were hammered by a much stronger dollar, which shot to just shy of the 113 handle.
This is the highest that the DX index has been since the dot com bubble bust.
There will be a lot of Fed speakers gadding about next week, apparently things to say.
Let's see if they say anything that soothes the nerves of investors, especially in light of the mess in the UK and the potential contagion effects.
Or not.
It might matter which way the winds of insider trading are blowing, especially out of Washington and NY.
Lord, pierce our hardened hearts, enlighten our minds, heal our blindness, and break the self-imposed chains of pride and self-deception, so that we may choose life through repentance, forgiveness, and life.
Have a pleasant weekend.
