Article August 17, 1992 Issue

Where's all this dominion I'm supposed to have?

During difficult or confusing times, it helps to learn more about how God made man.

Ann C. Stewart

My mother once told me a story about a friend of hers who had always had funds to get by on but never anything left over for extras. As a consequence she'd never traveled outside her home state in the American Midwest. One summer my mother treated this friend to a trip to the West Coast. As soon as she got there, her friend asked Mother if they could drive to the ocean. She stood gazing out at the Pacific for a long time, then turned to my mother and said, "Well! That's the first time in my life I've ever seen enough of something!"

Unfortunately, moments of satisfaction can seem all too fleeting. When it comes to material resources, there never seems to be enough—at least not for long! Economic cycles seem to roll in and out of our lives like the tide, each bringing a new set of problems. In our own time, as the hot '80s have cooled down to the tepid '90s, victims of buyouts have been replaced by victims of layoffs.

Whatever the cause, it's no fun feeling victimized, trapped by events that seem beyond our control—whether unemployment, financial difficulties, a troubled marriage, an illness. I remember so well my father telling me that was exactly how he had felt during the depression years of the 1930s. Given the state of the economy, when he lost his job, he was scared; he had a young family to support and no prospects for work.

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