MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wanted to extend my deepest and most sincere blessings to you and your family this Christmas.  I pray that you are blessed and that this year-end time brings you closer to God who through His son, Jesus brought salvation to all that desire it.

I pray that readers gain a real relationship with, rather than an intellectual understanding of their Savior.

I began preparing for the year-end wrap up yesterday and as I reflected on the blog I couldn't help realize what a hard year this was for me personally due to family illness issues and professionally thanks to the Fed and also President Obama's healthcare law.  I have grown up a lot this year and have had so many great opportunities to make hard choices.  Fortunately, I was able to make many of them correctly, but could not have done it without input from God, family, friends, and physicians.  I am very blessed.

As I'm typing this Christmas morning and my family is taking a break in their present opening, I wanted to wish you so many great blessings this year.  Know that I am praying for each of my clients (I do daily) and for the folks that stop by and read this blog.  

The coming year is going to be just as nutty I feel, thanks be to God that I have faith.  I've questioned so many times how bleak life would be without a belief that there is something more, something greater, and something for which there is a purpose.  How hard a life this would be without Jesus!  And thank God that those Mayans ran out of rocks!  Please look for a year-end wrap up and outlook for 2013 coming soon.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GOATMUG

Goatmug is an investor that cares about you and your family. Goatmug's Blog - Financial Perspectives From The Mountain Top is a collection of thoughts on our economy and how it impacts the lives of investors and average people. While several specific investments are named in many of his posts, these articles are simply invitations for you to do your own research and reference to these securities does not constitute financial advice. Your situation is complex and unique and you should seek professional assistance with your trading and investing. Please visit Goatmug and share your comments athttp://www.goatmug.blogspot.com/

9/11 FAITH AND DOUBT AT GROUND ZERO

10 YEARS TO REMEMBER
I saw a portion of a video this week and I wanted to make it available to you.  Below is a Frontline PBS video about the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.  As readers will recall I was an analyst and trader at the time that the towers were attacked.  I did not live in New York at the time so I was not in physical danger (that we knew of), but I am quite moved still at these scenes and as humans we always tend to place ourselves in a situation and view things through the lens of "that could have been me". 

I know many traders and brokers in New York and Chicago that lost close fellow employees and friends and somehow they continued to work and survive.  I am very patriotic and love my country, but I hate how politicians and the media have hijacked this event and am turned off every time I hear how we were attacked, but we won.  No one in the US won, and I refuse to try to make myself feel better because we invaded a country full of poppies and killed thousands of men that think they are attacking us for their own good reasons.

I am very emotional today as I rewatch this video and see the images of men and women throwing themselves from windows above the impact areas in the buildings.  I cannot imagine the fear and utter despair that caused those actions.

I don't know how I feel about this video as it shows so many men and women who are survivors of victims of 9/11.  The perspective in the video is that many have lost faith in God and I would even say have a hate for Him.  I cannot sit in judgement of them nor can I understand their loss and pain.  I can say that I am troubled by so many of their comments and beliefs 10 years later.  I have to remind myself that PBS is probably delighted to show a God-less and God-hating perspective since many very liberal perspectives agree with that.  No matter what their ultimate agenda in showing the film, I want to share it.

FOUNDATIONS SHAKEN
Without doing much more writing I want to state emphatically something that we all need to understand as we watch these people grapple with their faith and core beliefs about God.  I continued to hear in the documentary that many of the people had perfect lives, were blessed, and felt very close to their Lord.  However, now that they have suffered a loss they feel abandoned and are wrestling with how God could allow these terrible things to happen to them.  I believe and know that many of their feelings of loss and God's betrayal stem from a misunderstanding of who we are and why we are here.  The bible and Jewish texts tells us that we are created to worship Him and serve Him, it never promises a perfect life without sadness or loss.  I hear the pain of many in the videos and they are angry and pained but suddenly attribute it all to Him.  I sense that they had a deal with God that they made up, "God you give me everything I want and I'll follow you".  I don't think this is the vision and the covenant that God has in mind for any of us.  In fact, God says, "Give up everything and this will demonstrate your love".

Giving up everything is hard and I can't begin to say that I am at that place of achieving it.  I hate that these people lost so much and it pains me deeply to see that they have lost their loved ones AND their faith and confidence in the one true person of God that can heal and restore them in that place of sorrow.  In that sense, perhaps evil did win that day in that it revealed the deceptions of our hearts in 9/11, that we felt that God was here to serve us and when that wasn't true we rejected Him and sought to blame Him for our wrongly formed and unmet expectations.

  (This embedded video is part 1/7, as they finish you can go to the next one.  This is helpful because you can watch the video as you have time.  I've put the link to the original video at PBS below, if you have time you can watch it all there without seeking for the next chapter.)

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2120639608/

I posted this commentary with the intent of sharing my feelings and thoughts that provoke me to tears.  I do not mean to offend anyone that suffered a loss, I truly cry and share anguish with you although I cannot imagine the sorrow you must endure.  With this loss though, it is imperative to have a true foundation of where we sit in relation to our Lord, without it we will be consistently disappointed and our wrong view will ultimately damage our eternal salvation.

GOATMUG

Goatmug is an investor that cares about you and your family. Goatmug's Blog - Financial Perspectives From The Mountain Top is a collection of thoughts on our economy and how it impacts the lives of investors and average people. While several specific investments are named in many of his posts, these articles are simply invitations for you to do your own research and reference to these securities does not constitute financial advice. Your situation is complex and unique and you should seek professional assistance with your trading and investing. Please visit Goatmug and share your comments at http://www.goatmug.blogspot.com/

HAPPY EVERYTHING? GREETING CARD THOUGHTS

Ok, I want to apologize now if you sent Goatmug and the kids one of these, but as I am sitting here on Christmas Eve it is important for me to simply vent.

Yesterday I opened the mail and found to my pleasure a stack of cards wishing my family well during the Christmas season.  Believe it not, this is one of my favorite things to do in November and December.  I get excited to see family pictures of friends and clients and see how they are changing, how much their kids have grown, and the cool locations they choose as a background for the photos.  My heart was warmed by getting to see at least 10 of these yesterday. 

As I opened two of the cards though I was disturbed by the message of the greeting.  Emblazoned at the top was "HAPPY EVERYTHING".  Personally, I am a pretty happy guy as I'm a glass half full optimist (unless looking at business plans and small business projections for sales-they are always too optimistic).  I'm not sure if I need someone to wish me to have a happy everything..... whatever that is.  The Goat has a deep faith in Jesus Christ and as you know believes that Christ is my Savior.  Given that, you can imagine that I feel strongly that the Christmas Season is really about the birth of risen Lord!

So, in this age of "everyone is offended", am I offended?  No, Goat is simply just struck by the notion that we as a people and nation have become so sensitive to the overwhelming potential to offend others that we go out of our way to neuter anything special or unique in our own lives, faith, or identity.  In fact, we are so cognizant of the fact that others might be offended that we censor and eradicate any outward signs of our very own lives, faith, or identities.
Now, I understand the motivations behind both of the people that sent the cards yesterday.  In the first instance, the lady is a realtor and she is a very business savvy lady.  Clearly her objective is to keep us in our minds and say hello, but since she sends that card to hundreds of folks, her strategy is to simply say "Happy Everything" to appeal to everyone.  In my mind she frankly does the opposite.  By appealing to everyone she appeals to no one.

Have you ever seen the movie the Incredibles?  In the movie, the bad guy named Syndrome has a great quote.  He is lecturing our super hero and says, "When everyone is special, no one will be".  And in the case of the cards, I think the realtor is so bland and unoffensive, she becomes unspecial.

The second card I received was sent by a family of non-practicing Jews.  I know that they are sending these cards and attempting not to offend anyone.  But I personally would relish a card from them that proclaimed Happy Hanukkah, not because I'm Jewish, but it would suggest that they were truly ones that identified their faith as a core part of who they were and wanted to share a unique blessing with others.  This special blessing is more meaningful as it were to come from them and would be a message that was truly special.

My family did also receive a neat text message from some old friends that happen to be Turkish Muslims.  Guess what they sent in the text?  You got it, "Merry Christmas".  Can you believe that, one of the folks from one of these "minority groups" sent me a text telling me to have a Merry holiday and actually named it Christmas!  I think that is the pure genius of their simple note.  These people understand that this time is important to me and my family, therefore they sent me a message "in my language".  Were they offended sending it?  Absolutely not.  Am I offended when I speak with my Jewish clients about Yom Kippur, or Hanukkah, what about my Arab clients when I ask about their fasting in Ramadan?  No, I acknowledge their faith and celebrate that unique part of them that makes them different.  My clients love it that I have an understanding of their beliefs and have an interest in them.

So ultimately my point here is that we Christians are entitled to hold dear our beliefs, traditions, and holidays AND express them.  We have the right to proclaim our blessings and wishes just as every Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or Atheist has to their own holidays.  Many of our original 13 colonies were founded on the basis of the need to celebrate the expressions of our colonists' own religion without the tyranny of those that would suppress it.  While there are forces in the United States that attempt to deny our public expressions of faith (ACLU, etc) while championing the rights of Muslims to pray and express everywhere, the biggest culprit is our own cowing to the loud demands of others to limit the outward signs of our beliefs.  Unlike the colonists that suffered from kings that demanded a certain faith, it isn't a tyrant that is suppressing our religious beliefs it is our own fear of offending that causes us to omit the expression of our faith and our proclamation of it.  Ultimately the eradication of the public expression will lead to the obliteration of the observance and belief in faith in all but the most devout believers.

So as I am off to church to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I wish you a Merry Christmas and I sincerely wish that you fully appreciate the love of the Father who gave His only Son for us as a sacrifice to atone for our sins.  I pray that if you don't have revelation of this love that you ask Him for it.  I have confidence that you will receive it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GOATMUG