Faith is only as good as the object to which it clings. And we're learning that the stock market, the banking system and visions of perpetual prosperity are not good objects on which to pin our hopes and dreams. Like the unspeakable splendor of Half Moon Bay, the marvel that is our free market economy rests on a fault line given to seismic bouts created by the invisible and uncontainable tension of greed and materialism.

In his earlier letter, Peter spoke of an investment "that can never perish, spoil or fade." (I Pe. 1:4) His description is a mirror image of Paul's portrayal of invisible faith: "...for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (II Cor. 4:18)

Our bodies are something of a metaphoric illustration that points to the inherent value of an invisible world. Bodies grow tired, wrinkled, old, and eventually they die. But something else lives on. The visible perishes. The invisible turns immortal. (I Cor. 15:53, 54)

And once again, God makes His point. The real things are then unseen things. The things that really matter cannot be bought or even touched. The things that endure plane crashes and stock market crashes are the things that live forever.

So why place our faith in a material world when a far greater reality exists?

There are a few things we can depend on in this life. People will be greedy. Economies will rise and fall. And the "eternal, immoral, invisible" God is the only one worthy of my hopes and dreams in times like these. (I Tim. 1:17)
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All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

2 Peter 1:1