A commentary by Randy Stiver (3-11-2023)

“Don’t worry, Be Happy!” – Remember that long lost, hit song of 1988?

Written and performed by jazz and folksong writer Bobby McFerrin, it became what you might call an eclectic hit with wide-ranging appeal because of an uplifting lyric and tune.

Fast forward to the latest banking disaster of 2023. On Friday, March 10th the Silicon Valley Bank situated in the heart of the tech industry in California, failed rapidly and dramatically. Federal agents stepped in and closed the bank, but not before lines of desperate investors filled sidewalks outside. Will they get their money? Unlikely because only a meager $250,000 per individual is guaranteed by the FDIC.

The rub? SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) apparently disproportionally underwrote and funded many tech companies and green-startups, some of which we are familiar with in casual use. They also underwrote electronic payroll companies around the nation, which will have a large impact, as well.

“Don’t worry, be happy” about today’s news?! “Ha!”

Economies and stock markets bob up and down—sometimes dramatically. Most of society has been in a long, “bobbing up” stretch. But how long can good luck last?  

Many nations have prospered considerably in recent years and decades. Low interest rates and easy money policies seemed to ensure a perpetual upward swing in personal fortunes. But what happens when the world hits a bobbing down stretch—or worse yet, gets locked-in to a financially downward phase?

Jesus Christ prophesied that our selfish world would cause itself no end of trouble in the last days before His second coming. Any serious student of God’s Word would recognize the current world conditions to be as described in Revelation 3:17, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”

If we appropriately summarize God’s way of life as the way of GIVE, and the world’s way of living as obviously the way of GET (as in getting for self without concern for others regardless of what God says)—then we can better understand why the bad economic news.

“Don’t worry, be happy!”

Given the nature of human nature the world has ignored Bobby McFerrin’s advice. But, much worse, the world has also ignored God through His prophet Jeremiah: “The [human] heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

What to do about this latest banking reversal? Hide our money in the baseboards? Run around in panic?

No—we fall back to our foundation, the only thing of genuine value as expressed in Matthew 6:19-20:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

And this action advice from the last part of Matthew 6:31-34:

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Seek God, study His Word, learn His wisdom and trust Him completely! That wisdom will powerfully guide all who change their own ways and live by God’s way! Look to his Kingdom, and may it become more real in our minds than this world around us.

Remember always what God has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5/Deuteronomy 31:6)

*This originally appeared as a weekly note sent to my local congregation. If you wish to reprint this commentary or learn more about how to do so, please contact me in the comments below. I reserve my rights to this content, it is not in the public domain for use or reprint without my permission.