Our local church congregation has been collecting food for the local food bank. Seems they have a shortage of items as the winter sets in. I wonder if this is one of those telling signs of the times?

Yesterday an article in the Wall Street Journal told that most food banks across the country are suffering the same problem–a lack of items on the shelf. Many reasons are cited for the shortages, among them strong demand for fresh food items has led to a slight decrease in the amount of manufactured can goods. Add to this there are fewer “dented and scratched” cans along with more discount outlets like Dollar Stores and you get a picture as to why there is less food available for the food banks.

Unemployment is high and winter is nigh. There will be greater demands on the food banks. If you get a chance to help them out, do it.

Contrast this to the sight of the CEO’s of Detroit’s “big three” auto makers (General Motors, Chrysler and Ford) coming to Congress this week looking for a handout. General Motors and Chrysler are all but bankrupt–they just have not filed the papers. They are asking the taxpayers for billions of dollars just to stave off the inevitable.

All three men flew to Washington aboard company jets costing tens of thousands of dollars for the trip. I know this is symbolic, some would say, but that is the point. It is symbolic of greed and vanity and being out of touch with reality. That is why the entire American based car industry is in trouble. Union workers have demanded and received unreasonable wages for decades while the companies have not had the vision to design better more efficient cars. Both have been caught in a dangerous net of the times. Along with the nation, a day of reckoning is being visited upon them.

Ecclesiastes 9:12 says, “For man also does not know his time: like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.” This verse describes our times. Nations and businesses are “taken in a cruel net”, caught like birds. It is a time of change. Who would have thought one year ago the world would look like this?

Hang on, more is on the horizon.