For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
The following is an excerpt from the book Christ-Centered Contentment.
“There’s nothing to eat,” I murmured to myself as I stood staring endlessly into my kitchen pantry. You know the position—arms braced on each side of the door, slightly leaning back, gazing deeper and deeper into the dark recesses desperately hoping for something to appeal to my appetite. No luck. “Ehhh, there is nothing to eat,” I muttered under my breath hoping perhaps the fridge would host greater luck. Then God spoke to me. As I was walking to the fridge, He urged me to look in the pantry again. The items listed below are the contents of my pantry at that moment of despair:
4 boxes of cereal, 2 containers of oatmeal, box of pancake mix, large bag of raisins, bag full of leftover Christmas candy, 1/2 bag of chips, 1/2 bag of beef jerky, peanut butter, ready to make soup, jar of roasted peanuts, box of apple cider mix, hot chocolate mix, green tea, travel coffee singles, honey, syrup, salad dressing, potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, crackers, cinnamon raisin bread, 2 packages of flour, 4 varieties of oil, rice, wheat, coconut, corn syrup, chocolate chips, nuts, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, granola bars, canned food: chicken noodle soup, beef broth, chicken broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chili, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, navy beans, green beans, and re-fried beans.
It hit me like a ton of bricks: “Is this what I have come to call an empty pantry?” The realization left me humbled. Three-fourths of the world’s population would be ecstatic to see such abundance. I sheepishly found something to eat and with a little bit of embarrassment gave thanks for my food. Similar arguments could be made for those of us who stand in our over-stuffed, walk-in closets claiming we have “nothing to wear,” or those of us who have heard our children say they have “nothing to play with”! These are perfect examples of the paradox of prosperity.
We go about our lives believing that if we had this or that, then we would be content. In this scenario, contentment more or less is having what you want (whatever that may be at the time). It seems logical, but the Bible and experience have taught us otherwise. Contrary to our innate instincts, the evidence clearly indicates that contentment is not the natural result of prosperity. Ironically, accumulation often does more to drive our discontent. The confusing and alluring nature of prosperity often clouds our understanding of true contentment.
We must look at the unique challenges of prosperity to walk wisely. Paul said: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.” (Phil. 4:11-12) Paul explained that he had learned how to be content in poverty and prosperity. This dichotomy is enlightening. It eliminates the prospect of prosperity as the pathway to contentment, yet it clearly states that contentment can be found amidst affluence. We, like Paul, will only understand how to live in prosperity with contentment by learning.
Affluence = Amnesia?
The first danger prosperity poses in our pursuit of contentment is what I like to call “affluence-induced amnesia”. We have to recognize this reality to walk wisely through prosperity. The Bible makes a clear connection between money and memory loss.
“Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?” (Prov. 30:8-9)
“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God…otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God.” (Deu. 8:11-14)
“As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, and being satisfied, their heart became proud; therefore they forgot Me.” (Hos. 13:6)
We have to recognize that the Bible clearly states that it is the tendency of humanity to walk through prosperity with a sense of forgetfulness. To our shame—as soon as the going gets good, we forget the Lord. This is a sad condition, but it is something with which we can all identify. When facing difficulty we live in close communion with our Maker, but when life is going well we are quick to turn our attention off of Him.
Why does this happen? The answer is given in the passages above—our heart becomes proud. In our poverty, humility stays close by our side. However, when we begin to become successful, we are susceptible to the sneaky suspicion that we are the reason for our success. The first step of living in prosperity contently is remembrance: “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.” (Deu. 8:18) As we become more intentional to maintain a sense of remembrance, thankfulness, and awareness in our affluence, we begin to close the door on the awful sin of forgetfulness.
This concludes part 1 on this topic. Come back next week to read part 2.
I think affluence can sometimes make one lazy too. There may not have been anything 'easy' to eat in the pantry or particularly tasty. When you have more money, you may buy things that are more convenient and less work to put together.
My pantry has 10 times the amount of food we had when I was a kid. However, I found myself wanting something delicious and premade to jump out at me last night as I was tired from the holiday. I ended up making the family some french toast and fruit. We had all the ingredients, I just didn't want to 'see' them because I was beat. However, had I saw my pantry as a kid, I would have seen a thousand things to eat.
Posted by: Everyday Tips | December 26, 2010 at 09:07 AM
We sure tend to not realize what we have until we have lost it. I feel shame when I think of the things I bought years ago; now that it is a major deal to make a weekly grocery trip for bare essentials and it is time to put off dr. visits I need to make. This psychological pain adds to the day-to-day discomfort of falling off the middle class ladder.
Posted by: Becky Hansen | December 26, 2010 at 10:22 AM
How many wealthy people do you know that do not own a Microwave oven? Maybe I'm the only one.
For one thing, microwaveable products are loaded with chemical preservatives which are unhealthy and some have documented links to cancer. Secondly you pay much more for microwaveable products than if you were to buy the raw, fresh ingredients and prepare them yourself. I can hear the chorus of "but that takes too much of my time time". So what, the result is that it's cheaper, healthier, and tastes much better. You also won't find cans of soda in our refrigerator.
I also grow lots of our own fruits and vegetables and what we cannot eat when they are freshly picked we prepare, vacuum pack, and store them in the freezer for use in the Winter months.
There are far too many people today that 1)Don't like to cook, and 2)Don't know how to cook, yet I bet most of their mothers did. My wife and I emigrated from England in 1956 and we have preserved most of our traditions, and one of them is to have freshly cooked meals. We never set foot in a Fast Food restaurant and never took our children to them.
When my wife was a teacher in a state subsidized pre-school for low income and welfare parents they would sometimes offer classes for the parents where they demonstrated how to prepare very tasty and healthy meals for their children from supermarket items that were in season, very cheap, and very nutritious. The classes were so poorly attended that they finally gave up on the idea. It was just easier for these low income (often single) mothers to stop off at the local Fast Food restaurant and pay several times as much for a meal rather than prepare one themselves, just another example of how people in poverty tend to stay that way for a long time. There was one group of mothers that were quite different and they were the Vietnamese boat people. They lived in an extended family structure, lived frugally, worked hard and proudly moved off welfare very quickly. There was another native born minority group, that shall be nameless, that never made any attempt to move off welfare, the benefits were just too great to give up. A few decades later when the lists of valedictorians from our local schools started being published in the local newspaper, the lists were dominated by Vietnamese names. A consequence of this is that many people gripe these days that in our State Universities the majority of students are now Asian.
Posted by: Old Limey | December 26, 2010 at 01:19 PM
Great post! So needed in our American affluence. I found Stephen Driscoll called it Affluenza. He had a quote that said, "Satan’s great achievement – convincing a sinless Adam and Eve, who had everything, that they needed more." - http://tilwehavelogic.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/affluenza/ Let's pray we can remember who gave us our peace and prosperity and then act on that gratefulness with true compassion.
Keep up the good work,
Eric
Posted by: Eric | December 26, 2010 at 05:54 PM
Thanks Eric! That is a really cool quote. I like it. I was talking with my wife tonight about prosperity and had a pretty interesting thought--We tend to define "prosperity" as "more money than I have". You know? In all reality, almost every American would be considered very prosperous by the majority of the world's population--yet, we rarely consider ourselves as prosperous.
Posted by: Rob @ Dollars and Doctrine | December 26, 2010 at 07:50 PM
Old Limey,
What about using a microwave to heat water, or make microwave popcorn? Or do some of the pre-cooking for potatoes?
I thought micro waves just excite water molecules, and can therefore cook food from the inside out.
-Mike
Posted by: Mike Hunt | December 27, 2010 at 01:03 AM
Mike:
For those applications the only possible hazard is radiation leaking around the microwave door seal and into the room, but of course, cell phone users get more of that when they hold their phones to their ear. My gripe with microwaves is that their primary usage is to cook processed foods that are full of unhealthy chemical preservatives. I also try to avoid certain fruits and vegetables that require extensive use of insecticides and soil fumigants when grown commercially. With my home grown fruits & vegetables I just toss out any that bugs have gotten to - it's no big deal.
Posted by: Old Limey | December 27, 2010 at 10:40 AM
Re: Old Limey - Can't agree more. When my daughters were growing up and had other girls spend time at our house or sleep over - the other kids' food choices were quite telling. Some kids wouldn't eat unless it was Mcdonald's or mac n cheese or frozen chicken nuggets. One kid "couldn't" eat salad unless we had croutons and ranch dressing. Other kids would gobble down homemade veggie stir fry, or curried chicken, or make it yourself sushi like California rolls, etc. Years have passed. Let's just say the two types of kids have grown in to very different creatures! I think a diet of convenience food makes us lazy, unhealthy and narrow minded! But yes, it is easy to look into the pantry and think "I just want something to eat - I don't want to cook!"
Posted by: Kit64 | December 27, 2010 at 12:25 PM