This is a guest posts from Dr. Suzan Johnson-Cook, Author, Speaker, Senior Pastor at the Bronx Christian Fellowship Church in New York and Founder of Wall Street Wednesdays, a mid-week service that has been held for more than a decade in the heart of the New York’s Financial district More recently she initiated a mid-ween service in Washington D.C., Wonderful Washington Worship.*  

So much attention for the past twelve months has been focused on the recession. It’s almost an obsession in America and around the world. People watch the Dow and Nasdaq numbers on Wall Street with fierce focus. Questions arise on whether retirement funds, social security funds or other resources will be available. Many of our neighbors – families and the elderly –  have been forced to choose between medicine and food.  Students have had to drop out of school for lack of funds or their parent’s inability to pay. These circumstances can lead to stress and depression.

I’d like to recommend a solution. What is we were to shift our focus from toward the spiritual elements of life? What if we were to re-visit our very core, the very center of who we are as total beings and the saying on our currency: In God We Trust?

When 9/ll occurred, our churches, temples, synagogues and places of spiritual renewal were filled beyond capacity. The lunch-time worship services I held in the Wall Street area were standing room only. People had been terrorized by terrorism and things spiritual came into focus. I  encourage each and every one of us to make faith a priority once again.

This week I watched the nomination of our nation’s first Latina for the Supreme Court nominee and an African American physician, Dr. Regina Benjamin, as our new surgeon general.  Dr. Benjamin stated that health care reform will be a priority of our nation’s agenda, to which I cheered in agreement with her and our President.

As a pastor who hears many stories of individuals and families, Dr. Benjamin’s nomination brought to mind what I perceive to be a direct correlation between our health, wholeness and stress. What better way to take care of our health than to address the stress by taking time each day to stop and check in with our inner self and higher power.

It is a time for faith, just as it is a time for work, for scripture reminds us that faith without works is dead. We need health care reform and an economic stimulus…but we need a spiritual stimulus as well.  

*Wonderful Washington Worship takes place Tuesdays from June 16-July 28, 2009 at 12:00-12:45pm at Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church at 9th & Mass Ave NW,  900 Massachusetts Ave, NW,  Washington, DC 20001.