Christian Living

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More?

My daughter Jessie is just learning to talk. When she wants something to eat, she no longer points to it with a pleading look in her eyes - she can ask for it. She does this by saying More Initially she learned this word when she had eaten her meal and we offered her another serving, asking, "Do you want more?" Now she associates the word more with any request for food, be it first serve or second serve.

I found it funny that she has mistaken the word more to mean 'food'. How can she ask for more, I thought, when she doesn't have any in the first place? But then I realised - perhaps her limited grasp of the English language points out a profound truth. She knows she is not starving: she has 3 meals a day, plus morning tea and afternoon tea. She is not really lacking for sustenance on a global comparison. Plenty of children in poor countries are blessed if they can have one meal a day. So although Jessie hasn't even started lunch, whatever food she eats after breakfast is surplus or supplementary: 'more'.

We live in a land of plenty. Even those on government pensions and social security payments, although finding it a struggle, will not starve. 'Comfortable' income earners complain about taxes and debts (mostly self-inflicted), yet they have clothes to wear, and a roof over their heads. The majority of advertising on television and in the magazines, in glossy catalogues shoved in our mailboxes, promotes things we don't need. If we needed it so badly we wouldn't require advertising to persuade us to buy it.

Most of the commercials entice us to buy items of decadence: surround-sound entertainment systems, the latest fashion clothes and accessories, wide-screen plasma tv screens, broad-band internet connections, mobile phone ring tones and wallpapers, a plethora of household appliances and gadgets, prestige cars which cost as much as a cheap house in a country town... The excesses are sinful.

How confident would we feel explaining our budget to someone in a developing country where basic health care is not guaranteed? ...That we destroy our health through our indulgence in sugary, high-fat foods with no nutrition, leaving lettuce and beans to go mouldy in the crisper drawer of the fridge - while many people don't even get regular meals of rice or beans?

...That we get fat from sitting around entertaining ourselves with X-boxes, DVD's, computer games, and chat rooms, escaping only to drive to the corner shop for junk food and the Sunday paper - while many people, including children and pregnant women, have to work long hours every day just to earn a minimum wage?

Or how do we explain that we live in a society where boutique shops to discount clothing stores expect consumers to buy a new wardrobe of clothes each season - whereas only several decades ago, the only good clothes a person owned was their church outfit? Most of the western world's clothes are made by labourers in developing countries, for negligible wages in arduous working conditions. Why? Do we need more clothes? Aren't there enough clothes in second-hand shops and many tonnes languishing in boxes in women's cupboards and spare rooms?

This addiction of needing more - more treats, more entertainment, more convenience, more items to feed our pride and sense of acceptance amongst our peers - is blinding us from the amazing things we already possess. Do we thank God for the blessings we have now, and have had in the past? And not just material blessings, but spiritual blessings?

It's easy to see why the 'spiritual man' gets neglected in our thinking when our lives are so wrapped up in worldly pursuits. In this consumerist society, we are in danger of becoming consumerist Christians. Even when we pray, we approach God like some divine Santa Claus, asking Him for all the things we want, rather than coming to Him to give ourselves. Do we really know what is important in life? Why whinge about interest rates and bills when we are assured that God will supply our every need? Why worry about having to wear old clothes when we know God looks at the heart? And why try to 'keep up with the Joneses' for our sense of self-worth, when we know God accepts us and loves us?

As Max Lucado says in his book In the Grip of Grace:

"You see, from heaven's perspective, grace is enough. If God did nothing more than save us from hell, could anyone complain?... Having been given eternal life, dare we grumble at an aching body? Having been given heavenly riches, dare we bemoan earthly poverty?... If you have eyes to read these words, hands to hold this book, the means to own this volume, He has already given you grace upon grace."


Do we want more? Or has God already given us life abundantly?

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originally published in Record on 7 April 2007

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