Owning without Being
Owned
"He who dies with the most toys wins."
— Bumper sticker
Recently I was shopping at a mall in Southern California and noticed a new store going in next to Target. Although the interior of the boutique was far from being ready for business, the brightly colored red sign was already in place: The Cozy Yuppie. I suppose yet another merchandiser is climbing on the bandwagon by catering to the purse of the baby boomer. After all, we boomers are the ones with the strongest buying power. Ask any businessman.
In chapter 3, "Temptations of a Portfolio," we talked about money, but now we turn to the baby boomer's obsession for the things that money can buy. The pursuit of wealth in itself is an important issue, but of equal and parallel importance is the issue of preoccupation with things, things, and more things.
The Power of Media Hype
By 1990, every other household in America will be headed by a person born between 1946 and 1964. These baby
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boomers will be responsible for 50 percent of all consumer spending. That means we will all be hearing a lot more about our generation in the growing onslaught of media hype, aimed at the boom generation. Have you noticed how many television commercials use 1960s music to sell products to the children of the '60s?
When we realize that two thirds of all U.S. economic activity revolves around consumer spending, then we can see just how important baby-boomer spending is. It drives the entire U.S. economy. Business and industry need us desperately. They are hiring the best in the advertising business to sell us everything from small computers to big BMWs.
The problem with the media hype is that it creates unrealistic demands in us, the consumers. Of course, the favorite image in many advertisements is the yuppie — young, well off, mobile, living in the fast lane, and at the center of success. Although, as we have already established, yuppies are only a small group of baby boomers with whom most people our age don't really want to identify, the media continues to tempt us with that materialistic image of success. The reality is, most of us could not afford to keep up with the yuppies if we wanted to.
One Herman comic strip explains the situation so well. Herman is lying on a psychiatric couch in deep despair. His psychiatrist says, "I'm having a difficult time understanding the source of your anxiety. You have a luxury townhouse, a motorhome, three cars, a powerboat, all the latest stereo and video equipment, and you're planning another vacation in Hawaii."
"I only make $85 a week," Herman sighs (Unger: Nov. 1, 1987).
Me-ism and Materialism
Whether or not we can afford it, many baby boomers have unfortunately bought into the pursuit of materialism. It is
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all part of being the Me generation.
A 1986 Time magazine article, based on a survey of baby boomers, examines our materialistic generation:
From the first, the baby boomers were accustomed to instant gratification. Often brought up in shiny new suburban enclaves of middle-class comfort, they were doted on by parents who were counseled by Dr. Spock to dispense with the rigidities of traditional child rearing. Their surrogate parent was the television set. Parked in front of the glowing blue tube for an average of four hours a day, a quarter of their waking life, boomers became the first video generation.
Bored? Just change the channel. Hopping from one instant fad to another — from Davy Crockett coon skin caps to Hula-Hoops — they moved as a single mass, conditioned to think alike and do alike. Trendiness became a generational hallmark; pot to yoga to jogging, they embraced the In thing of the moment and then quickly chucked it for another (Thomas 1986:24).
We are affluent, many of us, but we can't afford all the things people want us to buy, and we don't need these things anyway. Even more important, we must learn that materialism is destructive to life in the Spirit.
Shut Off the Messages
CBS News reported in 1988 that the average American receives 5,000 messages a day from the combined sources of all media. Although we remember only 1 to 3 percent of that information, the overload tends to keep us ever considering what purchases we'll make next. And who do you suppose most of this media onslaught is aimed at? The baby boomer, of course, who holds a clearly targetable 50 percent of the spending power of all consumers.
A few weeks ago I conducted a junk mail survey in our
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home, just to get a picture of how many messages get inside my house even if I don't turn on the TV or radio.
Within two weeks the big box by the front door was overflowing. The results of my survey were disgusting. I finally decided I wouldn't even count them all: dozens of sweepstakes offers; hundreds of pages of advertisements from local stores; dozens of restaurant coupons; dozens of retail store shopping magazines; all kinds of direct mail ads for everything I could ever dream of wanting but don't need; and then a whole raft of little flyers hung on the doorknob every day. by real estate agents, lawn services, print shops, and reroofing salesmen. The point is, I could spend all my time just going through all this mess deciding what I need and don't need. And that is the problem. Why bother? The advertising media try to occupy many of our waking hours with just having to make choices.
We have to learn to shut off the messages. Or how else can we ever have time for the important, unseen priorities?
Turning to Scripture, we read about young David, a man after God's own heart, who is a role model for Christians tempted by materialism. David didn't have junk mail and TV to contend with, but certainly he faced equal temptations in his day and in his position. But when he was a young man, he demonstrated how to live life in pursuit of the right priorities. He explained:
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart.
I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.
I rejoice in following Your statutes as one rejoices in great riches (Psalm 119:1-2, 10, 14, emphasis added).
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What Are We Devoted To?
I will never forget the day I drove off to college as a young freshman. I was leaving home, 18 years old, and on my way to the university. In my tiny VW bug was my sister, who was also a student, and everything I owned. . . everything. And for about five years {until I got married!} I could always get everything I owned in the VW. For me that was freedom, and I was happy without a house full of things that seem to tie me down. Now, 20 years later, I spend many of my waking hours fixing, cleaning, straightening up, working to pay for or replace objects mistakenly labeled conveniences. There is great wisdom in the old saying, "That which you own will eventually own you!"
In the affluent, materialistic society in which most of us find ourselves, the temptation to allow possessions to possess us is at every turn. We daydream about that new car or stereo we're going to buy, or how we will decorate the home as we get more money. But God is a jealous God, and His first commandment is: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3). Another Old Testament reference reminds us: "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them" (Deut. 11:16).
But wait, you might say, I'm not bowing down to worship my possessions; I haven't made my things an idol.
The word idol is defined as "any object of devotion." Now we are hitting too close to home. Devotion is attention — focused attention. To worship an idol is to give too much attention to that "thing," to the exclusion, neglect, or avoidance of that which should have our first allegiance.
Now, I can have many things and not idolize them, but the potential and temptation is ever before me. Every time I go to the mall, I see new things jumping out of store windows, begging for my affections. The television, radio, and print media are constantly offering up new dishes of appealing products, clamoring for my affections and my devotion.
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I remember when I bought my first computer. I know it became an idol. It received most of my devotion / attention for weeks before it arrived as I pored over the brochures that described it. Then once it arrived, it took most of my energy and all of my time for months. At night I would lay in bed thinking about new things I could do with it. In the morning I would wake up so eager to sit back down at the keyboard that I would skip my devotions (notice how we use that word in this context) because I was too impatient and too focused on that machine. My computer became an idol.
Of the many images that Jesus used to portray spiritual points, one of my favorites is the image of water in His conversation with the Samaritan woman. He uses the image to speak directly to this issue of what we devote ourselves to.
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).
Material goods never satisfy. We always want more.
The Mesmerizing Power of Materialism
How much of our time do we devote to servicing, fixing, cleaning, arranging, and paying for all those things that are supposed to make life easier and simpler?
The fact is, these things make life more complicated and cluttered. And, worst of all, they dull us into a false stupor of security and complacency. Materialism by its very nature is external, and by our obsession with it, we neglect the internal dimensions of life. This builds on top of the fitness craze, another emphasis on the outside, and pushes us further from devoting time to the inside issues of the heart.
This conflict between the external and the internal was a
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problem for the church in Laodicea, one of the churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, and the church believed by many Bible experts to be the model of the church in the last days before Christ's return. Our Lord warned:
You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17).
Imagine that, people rich in every good material thing being accused of being poor, blind, and naked! If there is a serious danger that wealth has brought to the church in the affluent West, it is the mesmerizing complacency of thinking that everything is fine on the inside because we have it so good on the outside.
Fighting Materialism
For Christian baby boomers, the pressure to keep up with fellow boomers is one of our most intense battles. We should remember that earthly possessions mean little in God's kingdom. Consider the following suggestions:
1. It's OK if you don't drive a BMW. When we came home to the States after our six years in Vienna, one of our supporters graciously offered to buy us a car. Now who are we, homebound missionaries, to look such a gift car under the hood? Well, the car was a 1978 Malibu — over a decade old. Now I happen to love cars — nice cars. It has been a great exercise in eating humble pie to sit at the red lights and glance over to see my baby-boomer neighbor beside me in his shiny, black BMW 325i. At a moment like that, the nonverbal communication is deafening! His glance in my direction says it all: "What a loser... driving that old bomb."
What did Jesus say? "Life does not consist in the abundance of things [or their relative age and cost]." So try this test on for size. If you have a friend (or grandparent) who
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has an old bomb of a car, trade your shiny new car with them for a week. Or if you can't part with yours, park it for a week and just borrow a bomb. See how different you feel when you've changed the externals? See how much our possessions are a statement of our worth? See how much pressure there is on us to have the latest status symbols? Let's be different. Why should the world squeeze us into its mold? Of course, we all don't have to drive bombs. But if a life packed with luxury fills us with pride (a natural response), then we would be wise to do with less.
In the fitness chapter we saw that the greatest danger of the fitness focus is judging people by external appearances. This is even more true when it comes to the things people own. That is the way the world judges, considering us of more value if we own more and better things. But in the kingdom of Christ, it is the inside that counts:
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
2. Learn to shut off the media hype. It is possible to severely cut down those 5,000 messages we receive each day. We don't have to watch TV every night; we don't have to keep the radio on to fill up the quiet in our lives. We don't have to cruise the malls with our spare time, inviting the consuming monster to bite us.
I solve the junk mail problem easily. I always read my mail over the wastebasket. Unless I know I am looking for a good deal on a specific purchase, I don't even look at the advertisements. I toss them. I have decided that I will determine what I need. To spend an hour every day going through all the ads, coupons, and great deals only wastes my time and tempts me to buy things I don't even know I need!
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Why even expose yourself to the battle when you don't have to? The best policy for battling the advertising onslaught is "out of sight, out of mind."
3. Try living within your income, not your credit line. If there is one thing baby boomers are guilty of, it is spending beyond our means. And why not? Everyone is pushing new cars — with no money down — and credit cards down our throats. The lenders of our society want us to live above our means because they get rich off the interest we pay them. The Scriptures are clear on what that produces: "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" (Prov. 22:7).
Today the personal debt level in the United States is increasing at the rate of $1,000 per second. The Federal Reserve Board estimates that consumers spend one out of every four dollars in American income to keep up with installment debt. Living this way puts tremendous pressure on marriages.
4. It's OK to de-accumulate. I believe that the less we cling to our things, the more we'll be blessed by God. And at times that may mean giving up some things, doing without the latest and the best and the most — and even giving away things to others who have need.
A good friend of mine told me of an amazing story of a group of Christians who did just that. He goes to a church in Birmingham, Alabama that raised the entire funds to build a new sanctuary in two weeks' time. I admire them first of all for not wanting to go into debt, which has destroyed many a church. But the method they used to raise the money was most unusual; it reminded me of some Old Testament stories. When there just wasn't enough money coming in, people began to bring things instead of money. Valuables like jewelry, cars, antiques, and even deeds to stocks and property were brought as offerings to pay for their new building. It was the greatest spiritual renewal that affluent congregation ever experienced. Why? Because for those
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weeks, they let go and gave with reckless abandon.
5. Adopt a better status symbol. If there was ever a generation hung up on status, it is our generation. We live with designer everything, from briefcases to kids' clothes. Many of us are so possessed with being "in" and ''with it," that we spend large portions of our waking hours just processing the information that will help us stay with it and keep up with our boomer neighbors.
I propose a different value for Christian baby boomers, or at least a value of higher priority. It is the value of the internal and eternal riches. Today God is looking for baby boomers who are in search of inner excellence. That is His ultimate value as He measures our spiritual status, and in the long run, that is all that will count. But, oh, how we hate the long run — we who are in love with instant gratification.
Consider these words of wisdom from Jeremiah which put the status symbols of our modem society in proper perspective.
This is what the Lord says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom [knowledge/ education /expertise] or the strong man boast of his strength [athletic ability] or the rich man boast of his riches [financial and material success] but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord (Jer. 9:23-24, paraphrase added).
Thinking It Through
1. How is the accumulation of things related to idols?
2. Why is the accumulation of things such an easy trap into which we fall?
3. What steps can be taken to develop and nurture a better status symbol for yourself?
