A real gusher

I just discovered a gushing oil well—and I’ll confess up front that it’s produced a calculating spirit within me.

I couldn’t help noticing over the last two or three weeks—and I’m guessing you did too—that gas for my car dropped from $3.39 a gallon to just $3.04. In a season when most daily news reports focused on really ugly stuff, here was some genuinely good news. So grab your pocket calculator, and join me.

We’ll start with the googled estimate that the average American family last year spent about $3,000 on gas for its cars. Assuming there are 75 million families in the United States, we’ll conclude that we Americans ran $225 billion dollars’ worth of gas through our cars.

But since most of us can’t think coherently in such elevated terms, let’s pare the issue down to a more comprehensible number. Let’s say (to keep the math simple) there are about 75,000 American households where WORLD magazine shows up regularly. If they were typical, those 75,000 households last year ran about $225 million dollars worth of gas through their family autos.

But back to the gushing oil well. October’s drop from $3.39 to $3.04 a gallon, if it holds, means Americans over the coming year will have an extra $22.5 billion, or about $300 per family, to spend on things other than gasoline. That should be good for the economy.

But here’s an even more startling number. If members of our WORLD family are typical compared to the population at large, WORLD folks will find a total of some $22.5 million over the coming year that they thought they’d be spending on gas, but now can spend in more productive directions.

The remarkable fact, though, is that WORLD members are by no means typical. I don’t have to guess what WORLD members will do with an extra 10 percent supply of high octane cash. They will put much of it to work in new and exciting ways.

WORLD members, the record shows, are incredibly generous. Through the 28 years since I led our little team in assembling WORLD’s first issue, you have always responded cheerfully and liberally at this point in our annual calendar when I ask you to strengthen our hands with a special gift. Almost 2,700 of you last year supported us in such a manner.

What do those gifts do? They push us past being a merely good source for your news and news analysis, and let us serve more and more dependably as a great source. They help us stay faithful to those of you who will always want a paper and ink magazine, and at the same time push us steadily into the digital age.

Your gifts have allowed us to launch both daily and weekly radio broadcasts, accessible anywhere in the world through easy downloads from the internet, or by radio from a growing number of local stations.

Your gifts have helped us this fall bring all our children’s magazines into the digital age, allowing kids to stretch themselves with paper and ink magazines on three different age levels, as well as carefully related websites. Just don’t make the mistake of referring to all this as a “junior version of WORLD.” You might be surprised how sophisticated some of its content is.

Your gifts help us prepare for the future through the varied offerings of World Journalism Institute. Several hundred WJI graduates already serve around the world with both Christian and secular media organizations, thoughtfully weaving a biblical worldview into their various products.

So what will you be doing with your gasoline bonus this year? This needy world will offer you lots of options—and many will be worthy.

WORLD News Group’s special claim is to help you refine your worldview, and to think through all those varied claims and counterclaims with a consistent allegiance to a sovereign God and His trustworthy Word, the Bible.

For some of you, that will mean a thoughtful gift of $25, $50, or $100. Your gift to WORLD is fully tax deductible. To give quickly and securely online, visit wng.org/worldmovers. Some will resonate with that $300 figure—the average per-family saving on gas this year. A few will see the importance of significantly larger gifts. Almost every year, I’ve even asked for a tiny band to step forward with a commitment to give $5,000 annually for three years. More than 50 of you have done so in the past; I’m praying for 100.

Is this the year for a real gusher?

Email jbelz@wng.org