Prosperity can post a clear and present danger to our faith. In her book Practicing Peace, Catherine Whitmire quotes one man's response to someone who had asked whether it was hard to be a Christian in Cuba.
The man smiled. "Not as hard as it is in the United States." When the questioner asked why, the man answered,
"You are tempted by three idols that do not tempt us. One is affluence, which we do not have. Another is power, which we also do not have. The third is technology, which again we do not have. Furthermore, when you join a church or a meeting, you gain social acceptance and respectability. When we join, we lost those things, so we must be very clear about what we believe and what the commitment is that we are prepared to make."1
Prosperity can of course be good. It is good when people are lifted out of poverty. It is good when we have what we need. It is good to experience God's tangible blessings on our lives. But it is easy to succumb to the delights of a materialistic life, becoming mediocre and dull in the process. What's more, materialism steals our peace because it makes us anxious, frustrated, and unhappy. We are like dogs forever chasing their tails, as though pursuing life's greatest prize.
As Philip Yancey points out, "beginning with Adam and Eve's brief sojourn in Paradise, people have shown an inability to handle prosperity."2 Perhaps that's why rock stars and movie stars are often such parables of self-destruction. Compare pictures of Michael Jackson as a young boy with Michael Jackson as a 40something and you will see what I mean.
Kelly Kapec points out that most people associate the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah with sexual perversion.3 But according to the prophet Ezekiel, there was another insidious problem that contributed to the downfall of these cities: "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy" (Ezekiel 16:49). Imagine fire and brimstone raining down on your head because you were prosperous and yet gave nothing to the poor!
Today, as you consider your own financial situation, ask God for the grace to be generous to others and thankful to him.
- Catherine Whitmire, Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin, 2009), 244.
- Philip Yancey, "Forgetting God," Christianity Today (September 2004), 104.
- Kelly Kapec, God So Love, He Gave (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 42.
