Are you worshipping too much at the altar of consumerism?
Do you ever wonder if consumerism has become the new religion? Perhaps the checkout line is its altar. We pile our goods on the conveyor belt and after they are scanned, we slide our credit cards through the card reader. The small screen flashes the ultimate tenet of consumer faith, “Approved.” And sometimes, its dismal opposite appears, “Declined.”
What exactly does it mean to be “approved”? And how does this theology stack up? We are approved … but not saved, even when our receipts show a small savings. We are approved … but not redeemed, even when our coupons are. And we are approved … but not enlightened, even though we’ve had numerous revelations about product use.
Consumerism has its place, We all have needs that money seems to satisfy. It’s just when we forget the place that consumerism should occupy that we get into trouble. Our wants morph into needs and our cravings become compulsions. We ask ourselves: “Do I have enough? Do I do enough? Am I enough?” All of these questions converge into an even larger query: “When is enough really enough?”
We let consumerism seduce us into believing that life is some sort of track meet. Consumerism urges us toward the finish line with shouts of “More! Bigger! Now!” Yet, when we finish the race, no matter how we place, we die. No one ever manages to take their possessions with them. It doesn’t really matter if you end the meet with the most ribbons, you still can’t take them with you.
When we finally realize this, we set ourselves free. We come face to face with the fact that we are not our things. And most of all, who we are is not a thing, nor has it ever been.
Consumerism can have some pretty frightening consequences. A recent piece in the Boston Globe stated that, “Today’s families are prisoners of their own clutter.” It cited a four year study of 32 middle-class families in Los Angeles. Researchers came to the conclusion that many American families are simply overwhelmed by their sheer accumulation of things.
These families couldn’t park cars in their garages because they were already filled with nonvehicular items. They didn’t use their time-saving gadgets because they couldn’t find the time. And any free storage space was stuffed with outgrown toys being saved for future grandkids. One has to wonder at what point clutter becomes a symptom of hoarding? The final report described the overall conclusions as “disheartening.” Do we have our things or, in the end, do our things have us?
The Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once wrote that “Grace is free, but it is not cheap.” A real consumer would no doubt wonder about where the hidden cost is. Even though we live in a world full of price points, the answer is: Nowhere. This is almost impossible for a consumer-oriented mind to comprehend. There is no monetary exchange involved. We don’t buy grace; we are given it unconditionally. It’s not a function of our being worthy, willing or ready. In fact, we can only wonder how the Divine manages to love us so much when we have such a hard time loving ourselves, much less others.
All the while that consumerism shouts at us, Spirit is whispering: “The Lord is my portion.” “God’s grace is my sufficiency.” I hope that I can hear those words above the clatter. When we’re not careful, consumerism becomes a siren’s call.