day 264: FDIC

Maybe not everyone knows the ins and outs of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, but we certainly know that the FDIC insures our bank accounts up to $100,000 per bank. It is an institution that since the last round of bank and savings and loans failures that we have come to count on being there for us. In this latest financial crisis we have looked to the FDIC to be there as banks big and small have closed their doors. As of today, the FDIC has exercised its authority and will bail out over 100 banks this year. And if bank failures continue at their current pace even, the FDIC isn’t a long-term guarantee. I remember when Prudential Insurance would use the Rock of Gibraltar as their brand icon and marketing slogan. Today it would be hard for anyone of us to honestly believe that any financial institution is rock-like. We all know what it feels like to have what was yesterday solid rock footing, become squishy. We see it all around us and likely feel it in the insecurities in our jobs and careers. We miss those times of firm foundation and seek rocks to stand upon. We are looking for our own FDIC that we can count on to be there for us in whatever circumstances. And yes, we know that there is only one firm foundation and rock and this is in God and His Word. Yet, today, we will worry and have angst about the problems around us that are out of our control. We will do all we can to build up another temporal foundation and imagine it as solid rock. But like the props used in a theater or in the windows of a department store, we know that those rocks are merely Styrofoam and easily broken and destroyed. Our work is such a hard place to find a foundation because work is all about people and we all know, like ourselves, people are unpredictable, flighty, not always trust-worthy, and at the end of the day more out for themselves than others. There is only one rock to look for and only one rock to count on. There is only one rock to keep as our foundation. Isaiah says it best; "Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock." Today, don’t try and create another FDIC for yourself, instead look to the One who insured us against all as the only rock-solid insurance policy you will ever need.

Reference: Isaiah 26:4 (New Living Testament)