Articles
Doing Without
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Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Eze. 16:49)
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In a recent interview, author Douglas Murray made the following comment regarding modern Western civilization: “The only thing we are deprived of is deprivation." In this succinct observation, Murray put his finger on the disease that is plaguing our culture. We have become so rich and comfortable that we have lost the hunger to excel. Consequently, we have become soft and flabby, too lazy to push forward and too haughty to care.
Over twenty-five centuries ago, God diagnosed the same disease in ancient Jerusalem. The ruling class was comfortable in its wealth, but indifferent to the stress fractures that threatened the nation's long-term health. "Pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness" were a toxic combination that would eventually doom the nation.
One of the great ironies of history is this link between material prosperity and moral decline that marks the rise and fall of so many great empires. Hardship forces one generation to buckle down and work hard; their sacrifice purchases a level of affluence that succeeding generations can enjoy; eventually a generation emerges with a haughtiness that despises the very values that made their comfort possible; finally, the debauched moral currency sets up a catastrophic fall.
This is the curse of a prosperous society, but it is not inevitable. The decline and fall is the result of deliberate choices made by masses of people in their individual lives, starting with how they handle their abundance. If we want to avoid that fate, we must train ourselves and our children to do two things: maintain a grateful heart that thanks God for our bounty, and be wildly generous with our possessions.
If fullness of food is a contributing factor to pride and idleness, maybe we need to learn again how to do without--before deprivation is inflicted upon us by forces that do not care about our comfort.
--David
