Mortimer B. Zuckerman of U.S. News & World Report recently wrote a column entitled, "Our Energy Conundrum." The premise of the article is that we are guzzling too much gas, and it will lead to higher prices unless we learn to curb our appetite for petrol. Of course, no good consumer likes to hear that his way of life is a bad things. We want to be able to get as much gas as we want, and we don't want to pay much for it. Welcome to the American consumer mindset. But our consumption will be our undoing unless we learn how to be responsible stewards and reduce consumption where possible. Consumers don't want to be efficient. We just want more!
This topic came up while talking with my friend Kevin about how we complain about the high price of gas as if we thought that we could consume limitlessly without prices going up. What did we really expect would happen when we have become a nation of people driving to work in SUVs with only one person in the vehicle?
Please don't get me wrong. I am not against anyone owning or using a SUV. I just don't understand how we think that we can keep on consuming without eventually having to pay the price. As a nation, the USA continues to buy more stuff, much of it is junk. This causes our personal and national debt to skyrocket. And then we hope to have a stable economic future. We want to keep on paying more and more for bigger houses and hope that we will have financial freedom.We want to supersize everything and still have a six pack or a model's waist line. Get real! We are jeopardizing our future by enjoying whatever we want to excess today.
Is this really how God intended us to live or are we taking the book of Ecclesiastes too far when the author said to eat, drink and be merry? I believe that God wants us to be a good steward of resources. Christians should be thrifty and efficient not wasteful and in debt. Christians should honor God with every dollar spent and moment lived. Can we party and have a good time? Yeah, we had better! No one has more reason to celebrate than a child of The King. Christians don't have to sell everything and join a commune. We should enjoy God creation and be free to live. However, we should not take our liberty as a license to disrupt God's plan of restoring all things. There is a way to go about living that can tap into the joy of being fully alive without dishonoring God or harming others. Instead of consuming everything the world has to offer according to sinful lusts, Christians should be consumed by God's glory and live a life marked by real joy, peaceful rest and aboundng love.
