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I am struck by how different the world is today from what it was just a year ago. It seems strange to talk about it this way, because the sun still shines, the rain falls, crops grow, birds sing, the deer chew up our shrubbery. But the difference is in us, not the world. And people are wondering how they should prepare for what may lie ahead. Especially people with young children and grandchildren. Gardening supplies are selling at a rate almost as high as guns and ammunition.

I don’t know what lies in the immediate future, nor does anyone else. And it is unfortunate that the news media look very much like the boy who cried “Wolf!” You remember Aesop’s fable. A shepherd boy, bored with just watching the sheep, amused himself by crying Wolf, and watching the townsfolk come rushing out to help defend the sheep. Later, when a real wolf showed up, no one answered his cry.

The news media thrive on excitement and crisis, so almost anything that happens is blown up into a crisis whether it is or not. Have you noticed, we never have a day that is boring. There is always something. Back in the day when we depended on the local newspaper and the radio for our news, everything moved a little slower and stayed in some proportion. That said, there is little doubt that there is trouble ahead. There always is—remember 9/11? Remember Pearl Harbor? I will refrain from criticizing the commanders, and suggesting what they should have done. I don’t know enough to do that. Pearl Harbor serves as an apt metaphor for preparation for a crisis. The best instructions for Christian folk, not surprisingly, come from Jesus. There was something he said in the Olivet prophecy that bears on this...