Confidence

As I was returning from dropping off my kids at school this morning, I heard a news report on the radio about the health of Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple. The other day he tried to assure reporters that his declining health was due to a hormone deficiency but now he's taking a leave of absence for several months because his health issues are "more complex than originally thought." Apple's COO, Tim Cook, will take on Jobs' responsibility while he is on medical leave.

As a result of this news, stocks for Apple were down 7%. Really? Apple's product is not suddenly going to tank because of Jobs' temporary absence, yet the confidence of investors is so fragile that they panic like a group of scared Jr. High girls (no offense to Jr. High girls in the audience). It might be because I'm not the most savvy of investors, but I don't get this mass panic when issues like this happen.

What if we panicked like this with God? How many people would "sell off their shares" if a loved one was sick or they lost a job? In a sense we do this at times as followers of Christ, don't we? Sure we might pray more or go to church more to counter our struggles, but inside our confidence in God wanes a bit when we go through hard times.

The words of Job come to mind when I consider how I should respond when life seems to be crumbling around me (Job 1:21-22):

Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of the Lord.
Throughout all of this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

There's not need to panic or lose confidence. God is not volatile like the markets. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).