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The coming chaos?
EXPLOSIONS OF CRIME JOIN WITH A SENSE OF LOOMING SOCIETAL AND ECONOMIC UPHEAVAL
Is
it a time of "preparation"? This we have been hearing for years. Events
unfold slowly, but unfold they do. We are in the period of
intensification. Two societal trends may be set to merge: upheaval in the
form of civil unrest along with upset in the economy.
"For months now the Holy Spirit has placed two words in my heart," wrote an especially well-spoken woman, Susan Killian, from Wauconda, Illinois. "They are 'simplify' and 'prepare.' I have felt like I did when I was pregnant with my children. I am 'nesting.' But this nesting is different. It isn't about setting up a nursery. Instead I find myself praying more, fasting, feeling the need to go to Confession more often, and the need to encourage my loved ones as well. I feel the need to fill my home and vehicles with sacramentals. I have also felt the need to 'retreat' from this world -- not in the sense of ignoring my Christian obligations but to put distance between myself and the darkness out there."
Darkness -- and unfolding chaos -- there are. But it is defeated by fleeing to the Blessed Mother; it is defeated through prayer. It is one reason we felt prompted to return to Medjugorje, a place of peace and perspective.
With prayer, we have neither to fear: the Holy Spirit will guide us onto safe ground. Whatever is or is not coming, with God, we transcend any chaos, no matter how intense. He will prepare us.
But we must take a look (the truth sets us free) at what is transpiring around us.
Just recently -- in just the past couple of weeks -- there have been the mall shooting in Omaha, the hostage held at a campaign headquarters in New Hampshire, and the shootings at Christian centers in Colorado. Such are part of a growing and violent anti-Christian trend, as well as a touch (or preview) of anarchy.
In New York, a melee broke out on a subway over whether to say "Happy Hannukah" or "Merry Christmas."
There are home invasions. There are assaults. In Austin, Texas, two boys aged 11 and 14 were charged with sexually assaulting a 60-year-old woman. There is brazen sexuality erupting in every form of media -- and by the biggest "stars." Sin has grown bold as never before. Headlines from just the other day: "Mom, 8-year-old daughter bound, shot at point blank range" (that was at a mall in Palm Beach); "Woman had mom shoot her husband" (that was Dallas); and "Robber sets two women afire" (that was in the area of Orlando).
Remember this term "upheaval." It is an age of growing disorder.
Will it be joined by an economic meltdown?
"The U.S. economy is in trouble and could easy slip into massive crisis, and take much of the rest of the world down with it," argues viewer Michael Neri of Coral Springs, Florida (for your discernment). "There are several imbalances which will likely all converge to precipitate this crisis:
"The fact that the U.S., the world’s richest country, is financing its rising standard of living with debt, borrowed from poorer countries, is decimating the dollar and bringing sharp inflation into the U.S. and elsewhere.
"The sub-prime mortgage crisis is one facet of this trend, but there are many other kinds of debt that the people of the U.S. borrow and use, and all of them are at risk of going bad. The debt problem will play itself out into a financial crisis of gargantuan proportions, in which hundreds of thousands of jobs in financial services and other sectors could be lost over the next two-to-three years. Recession is one term we can use to describe what is coming down the line, but a better term will be financial system destruction. Imagine life without banks?
b. "Another problem which has received little public attention till now is the problem of the derivatives industry which is far worse than a runaway train wreck. A large part of the derivatives business is the so called options derivatives, which are in effect bets placed by people on all kinds of things, like the price of oil.
"The total value of these options derivatives is currently of the order of $ 450 trillion (yes, that is trillion), which is ten times the value of the gross domestic product of the whole world. In other words, people have bet the farm (the farm being in this case all the income of the world) ten times over, in this huge, unregulated system.
"Not only is the total of such bets unimaginable, but even individual bets are far bigger than the capital of the institutions that place them. Any sudden change in economic conditions will thus cause losses on these bets that could potentially run into trillions of dollars through a system of cascading dependencies, and could bankrupt entire institutions, and even entire countries.
"This is a time bomb waiting to explode. When it does (not if it does, because explosion is a certainty), expect incredible mayhem within the world financial system, resulting in millions of jobs being lost, not just in financial services but in a variety of businesses which cannot survive without the services provided by financial services.
c. "Less cataclysmic in the short run, but much more profound in its implications in the long run, is the problem of peak oil, which in all likelihood is already a reality. For three years in a row, total crude oil production has stagnated and even declined slightly, despite rising demand.
d. "Finally there is the global warming issue, which seems to be pushing big parts of the world’s food producing zones into drought conditions, resulting in lower production, higher prices and more hardship for the world’s poor.
e "All of these trends mutually reinforce each other and amplify the crisis they cause.
"In view of all these trends, any reasonable mind will admit that the risk of massive economic 'chastisement' in the near term is very real, and from all appearances, unavoidable. There’s little we can do to avoid peak oil, and little we can do to prevent an implosion in options.
"Given the momentum that we can see now, my sense is that these things will begin to accelerate sharply in 2008 and by 2009 we will be in the middle of irreversible economic decline. The effects of that decline will vary from place to place, but overall, it will force people to shift away from the modern economy. For instance, if U.S. unemployment rises beyond fifteen percent, you will very likely see millions return to rural areas in an attempt to make some kind of a living for themselves."
For your discernment.
For your prayer.
If it does come, remember that God takes care of the creatures, the birds of the air. He clothes them. He feeds them. How much more will He look after you?
Simplify. Distance yourself from consumerism. That is your preparation!
Fear not but do as the Holy Spirit -- after fasting, after deep prayer -- may be telling you.
[resources: The Day Will Come, Michael H. Brown California retreat, and Medjugorje pilgrimage]
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