Losing Track of Billions...Only in America!

I must confess that I'm still smiling. I've been following this story for some time..."US loses over 9 billion dollars in chaos of war." http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/ The reason I'm smiling so much? I just can't believe that someone could be in charge of so much money and then lose it. I don't make big money. All of my life I've lived from week to week, month to month. Please don't think I'm complaining because I'm not. I'm just flabbergasted that so much cash could go missing without a logical explanation. I mean...I lost $20 once and grieved over it for weeks. I never found it but I did eventually find $10 in the Walmart parking lot...so I'm just ten bucks down. I'm still looking. But really? I mean really? Nine billion? Yikes!


The Drachma

 As a boy in Sunday School I learned about the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). This woman had ten silver coins but lost one of them. She didn't grieve...she broke out into action and looked the house over. She cleaned, swept, looked and searched until she found that coin. She then called her friends in and threw a party. The coin specified by Luke was a Greek drachma, which was almost the equivalent of a Roman Denarius. It was a silver coin, and although worth by our standards less than twenty cents, it was the common wage for a day's labor. Some scholars have suggested that in this case the coin was especially valuable to the woman since it formed an ornament for her head. It was customary for Jewish women to save up ten coins and string them together for a necklace or headband. The ornament became a treasured possession worn as the sign of a married woman, very much like a wedding band is worn today. At any rate, whether as a part of her cherished jewelry or simply as something of monetary worth, the coin was of priceless value to the woman. That is evident from her diligent search. On missing the coin, she at once lit her little oil lamp and began to sweep. A lamp was necessary for the search even in daytime. In those days, most houses then were generally built without windows and with only one door. In the house there was no wood or stone flooring, only the packed earth covered with dried reeds and rushes. With a floor like this there were many places where a coin could be lodged. All of this made the search a difficult and trying experience and helps explain why the woman was overjoyed when she found the silver piece that had been lost. She wanted her headband back.

Good news! We found 6 billion of our money. Imagine...it was in the bank...er banks...all along. We shipped it over to Iraq and put it in a couple of banks over there so we could do the business of war. I'm so happy we've found the mysteriously missing money! I have this big smile on my face because we found that which was lost. I have a question though. When's the party? Oh...I forgot. We have separation of Church and State so we shouldn't follow the example of the the woman with the lost coin. I was just thinking how cool it would be to have a big, national party to celebrate the money that we found. You know, we could give everyone a couple of bucks and tell'em to have a coke or sweet tea. I mean...think about it...we could pass around some cool drinks for the Occupiers and then give something to quench the thirst of the Tea Party folk too. This party would be a unifier not a divider. We'd celebrate the discovery of the missing money. It is simple! It was in the bank all the time. No worries. We should all get headbands that read: We Got Billions Back!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/once-feared-lost-now-accounted-iraq-inspector-says-153935856.html

Hey...wait a minute. We lost nine million? We found six million? I wonder if I should ask about the three million or just assume that it is OK to lose a little in the translation? I should have known...three million is chump change. We're not worried about that small amount. Look I have to say this...someone should really be embarrassed. Really. We have high unemployment; poverty on the rise; children going hungry and job loss every day (not to mention those crazy gasoline prices)...we could have sure used that money around here about now. Even the three billion would be a welcome asset to our struggling economy. Even Greece seems to have reached a way to have a fresh start! http://news.yahoo.com/greece-stocks-opposition-blasts-debt-deal-125444465.html We need fresh start too!

No one seems embarrassed. Everyone keeps running their mouths on the cable news and no one seems the least bit concerned that we just misplaced six to nine billion dollars. It all seems surreal to me. That's why I'm smiling...we just can't keep this up. We've got to get our country back in order. If not...we're gonna end up just like Greece...begging others to help us get out of a seemingly impossible set of circumstances. We have to be more like that woman with the drachmas...let's redeem what we've lost before it is too late!