Our failure to confront our covetousness and our failure to realize and respond to the impact of marketing on our lives might do irreparable harm to our civilization. I’m not an economist and I don’t want to be too much of an alarmist, however …
Iceland just went bankrupt. California is on the brink of insolvency. This in spite of the fact that we are living in a time of unprecedented planetary prosperity. Let’s be blunt. Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt because of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And the American government is taking on levels of debt that may be unsustainable. Please note that I said that they “may” be unsustainable. I don’t really know if they will be or not. I remember that doomsayers back in the 1970’s and 1980’s said that they government debt level at that time was unsustainable and the doom was immanent. Instead of doom we ended up with a decade and a half of some of the most amazing economic growth the world has ever seen. So I don’t want to seem like I know more than I actually know.
But I do know that Iceland went bankrupt, that California is on the verge of insolvency, and that the average American is up to his eyeballs in debt. And none of this needed to happen.
Let me pause for a moment of self disclosure. I am the spender and Nancy is the saver. A couple of years ago she graduated from college and got a much higher paying job. I didn’t adjust our income allocation very much at all. I pretty much kept my share of the bills (which was the lion’s share) and left her with the disposable income. I did this because I knew that she was unlikely to dispose of it. We are renegotiating our mortgage right now, and I recently found out how much money she had managed to save. Without sharing the actual amount with you, I was very pleased to see how much she had put away. If I had kept control of that money, a lot of it would have been frittered away. I’m telling you this because I want you to understand that what you are reading is not coming from a guy who has total victory in this area. I’m way better than I used to be (and understanding the impact of seasonal depression on impulse buying has been a major part of that) but I’m not yet where the Lord wants me to be.
This is what the Lord said to me recently. You can see how much of it may apply to you. “When you spend more than you should, Satan has put a metal ring through your nose. He has a rope tied to the ring, and he is laughing at you as you respond to his direction. Not only does he have your spending money on stuff that doesn’t make you happy, but the resultant financial pressure to pay everything off makes you miserable.” Something to think about. Something to pray about.
1 comment:
The degree to which we are not even aware of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are just remarkable. The enemy has taken these words and phrases and completely gutted their meaning to our post-modern minds.
As an example, I was recently talking to one of my sister-in-laws -- a devout follower of Christ -- about vanity. I thought I was engaging in a little light hearted ribbing about how these sisters lean toward a bit of feminine vanity.
Her response surprised me. "Most of us women, just want to stay pretty. It has nothing to do with being vain." Somehow, in her mind, the linkage between wanting to be pretty and vanity had been completely broken. Vanity is a well-known sin (pride of life), so no Christian can imagine him/herself being engaged in that sin. So instead we rename it and to out minds is no longer sin.
It's the same with prosperity. We tell ourselves (and Satan chimes in) that we have a legitimate need for these many self-indulgences. The very holy concept of self-sacrifice is overwhelmed by the lying smiles.
Lord help us... and start with me.
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