Tis the season ... a time for beautiful music, lovely pageantry, parties, fun and family time, the annual bedlam in shopping malls, specialty stores, discount houses and now the Internet.

Much of the world is caught up in what is called the "spirit of the season" evidenced by a gift buying frenzy, which often puts the purchasers deep into debt and which fills the coffers of the merchants.

The world has watched with interest (and, perhaps, apprehension) as Pope Benedict XVI has undertaken his first excursion to a Muslim nation. The common thought has been that the Vatican had large stakes riding on the visit and that the pope had to tread carefully.

Recently I spent some time with my 92-year old mother. She had just received her latest issue of AARP The Magazine, which contained a very sobering interview with Dr. Robert G. Webster, one of the world's leading virologist and flu experts.

Dr. Webster correctly pointed out that the 1918 flu pandemic, which sickened and killed millions around the world, was actually a distant cousin to today's bird flu. According to authorities, bird flu may mutate into a major health crisis in just a few short years, or even months, becoming even deadlier than the 1918 variety.

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:25: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"

If the Savior of all mankind says that, why then, am I always worried about these things? Another house payment; the furnace is getting older; food prices are getting to be ridiculous; my best suit is getting a bit frayed (have you seen what the new ones cost?) Did I mention about the car?

Ever since the first atomic bomb demolished Hiroshima, military thinkers have wrestled with the question of how to fight and win an atomic war. Now with North Korea and possibly other countries going nuclear, the world is becoming a much more dangerous place.