Hammer on Anvil '

The American dream. Having money and security. Being able to get whatever you want, whenever you want and never having to worry. Sounds like something worth striving for, right? Sure.

But at what cost? I’ve talked in several posts about how we, as Christians, need to have an eternal perspective. Instead of worrying about the here and now, we need to be concerned about what consequences our actions in the here and now will have in eternity. Lately I’ve been wondering what that perspective means in terms of American culture and especially the American dream. I’ve even been wondering if…maybe, just possibly…the American dream is more of a curse than a blessing.

When I was in college, one of my professors shared a very interesting statement with us: all civilizations begin in stoicism and end in hedonism. At first, I had absolutely no idea what that meant. I mean, those are big words, am I right? But then he broke it down. Stoicism means an indifference to pleasure or pain. It means that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to survive and you don’t care if it causes you pain or if you’re able to be happy. Conversely, hedonism means striving for maximum pleasure with minimal effort. So, all civilizations begin with people being willing to do whatever it takes to survive and end with people wanting pleasure, but not wanting to exert any effort.

If stoicism and hedonism were on opposite sides of a scale, which side would you say America in 2012 is closer to? Regardless of political affiliation, I think most of us could agree that we are much closer to hedonism. In fact, hedonism describes our culture pretty well.

Now let me shift gears from the political back to the spiritual. What effect is an attitude of “maximum pleasure for minimal effort” having on our relationship with God? I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think I can boil down the effect to one simple statement. If my Earthly needs are provided for, why do I need God? This is the unspoken sentiment of many Americans.

We have it so great in America. For most of us (there are obvious exceptions), our worries are more centered on pleasure than necessity. We’re not worried about where our next meal is coming from because that’s not a problem. We’re more concerned about how many times we’ll be able to afford to go out to eat. When we have it so good, what’s our motivation to depend on God? Spiritually speaking, this may be more of a curse than a blessing.

There was a very interesting survey taken in 2010 that found similar results. It has a really cool chart, so I urge you to take a look. But to boil down the results, less money equals more faith.

Jesus himself talked about the perils of pursuing wealth (Matthew 6:24, 7:24-27, 19:23-24). But what are we to do when we are Americans and pursuing wealth is part of American society? We are to be Christians first and Americans second. Paul tells us that we are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador is someone who is sent from their home country to live in a foreign country in order to represent their people. As Christians, our home is Heaven, but we are living on Earth. We need to always remember that.

I’d like to end by sharing an amazing song by Casting Crowns called “The American Dream.” If you’re interested, you can see the lyrics here.