1 Timothy 6:6-11 “Yet
true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After
all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take
anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food
and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be
rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires
that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love
of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have
wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But
you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue
righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and
gentleness.”
I
live in downtown Anaheim , California Santa Ana
River , 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by five mountain ranges, was
founded by German winemakers in 1857. I grew up here and watched the seemingly
endless miles of Orange groves transform into
tracts of houses. And I’ve seen over the years many fads and trends (music,
fashion, hair styles, shoes, cars, phones, TV shows, coffee, restaurants, et
cetera) come, have their run and then go, to be taken over by a new one. Haven’t
we all. Even the popular colors of the time; remember “avocado green” being the
rage once – what was up with that one?! The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines
the word “Trend” as: “To run; to stretch;
to tend; to have a particular direction; as, the shore of the sea trends to the
southwest”. Today’s dictionary definition adds: A current style; vogue; as, the latest trend in
fashion.
Romans 13:14 “But put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify
its desires.”
I remember taking a class back in Junior High
School, where the teacher taught us how the advertising industry playing upon
Americans obsession for trends because quickly gravitate to the latest craze,
but become bored after a short time. Constant change was required because once
people were doing what everyone else was doing, or had what everyone else had,
something new had to be there to chase after. The teacher used a simple
illustration of the beer industry, where trends went from the old standards, to
light beers, to red beers, to ice beers, to Mexican beers, to imported beers
from all over the world, to Micro-brewery beers today. Marketing does a great
job of creating the “hype” (Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially
in advertising or promotional material and the ensuing commotion) for mindset
and associated sales. It was a funny example for Jr. Hi. Kids, but he made his
point! The object is to make us feel that if we are not “buying into the latest
trend” then we are “missing out on life” in some way; incomplete. That you need
to be “in” with the “in-crowd” or there is something wrong with you. Our social’s
desire to “keep up with the Jones” in the latest trend by needing to do
wherever the rest of our culture was doing, can put us into an unhealthy
psychological cycle of discontent by sure peer pressure. You wouldn’t want to
be “different”, would you? Yet, the trend-setters motivation is constant and
continuous “change” to be different. Out with the boring “old” and in with the radical
“new”. Old is now a viewed as a bad thing because “last year was so 2013”! Can trends sometimes be distractions manufactured from discontent and boredom? Not
that trends are bad, in and of themselves, because new things can be very good
and improve life. But some trends can play and pray upon our egocentric flesh
nature’s desires and we can make trends into something bad.
Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable
and perfect.
I read a magazine article the other day about the
“hot up-and-coming next-generation downtown Anaheim America
Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”
The 1828
Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “Idol” as: (1) an image, form or representation, usually of a man or other
animal, consecrated as an object of worship; a pagan deity. Idols are usually
statues or images, carved out of wood or stone, or formed of metals,
particularly silver or gold. (2) The gods of the nations are idols. Ps.96:5.
(3) A person loved and honored to adoration The prince was the idol of the
people. (4) Any thing on which we set our affections; that to which we indulge
an excessive and sinful attachment. Little children, keep yourselves from
idols. 1 John 5:21. (5) An idol is any thing which usurps the place of God in
the hearts of his rational creatures. Any of these sound familiar? By
definition, we can turn anything into an idol, an other god, when it draws your eyes off of the
Lord. My old Pastor David Schick once said in his Christianity 101 class, that
we look at life through the window of Jesus Christ as our worldview and live
according to His holy Word, Will and Way. Have a light hand on the temporal
things of this world and a grip on the eternal things of heaven. Today’s trends
come and go, but life in Christ is ever-lasing. Keep the eternal perspective
that never trends. True
godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.
Jeremiah 15:16 “When your words came, I ate them; they
were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God
Almighty.”
In
Christ, Brian
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