How often do I find myself asking myself, “What can that person do for me?” or, “What have they done for me lately?” The seemingly endless political campaign that just keeps on going in the USA reeks of those kinds of questions. It seems like kids learn to ask those questions, and manipulate others based on the answers, about the same time they learn their first word, “NO!”
There is a whole branch of Christianity that is basically all about applying those questions to the God of the universe. It is variously called Prosperity Theology, Name-it-and-Claim-it, or as a friend labels it, “Blab it and Grab it.” Shaping one’s Theology around consumerism, and/or viewing people as means to an end—MY end—is clearly contrary to the teaching of the Bible. To quote a Theological lesson I learned when I was just a little guy,
“Jesus and others and you, what a wonderful way to spell joy.”
Not only is looking at the Universe as my amusement park wrong, in an intellectual sense, from a pragmatic viewpoint it doesn’t work. People who get everything they want, especially if it is just given to them, don’t turn out very well.
“A child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.” (Proverbs 29:15)
Quite often what we most need is what we want the least. Hebrews 12 points out that as our loving Father, God disciplines us. The language is quite severe. Self-discipline, not self-indulgence, leads to improvement.
But since that might not be what you wanted to read, you might have already quit.
It’s STTA.
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