Pursuing Life

Marketing is a game. It is a game where advertisers try to convince us we have to have everything from the “newest” to “the new and improved.” We live in an age of consumerism that has spawned greed and an insatiable lust for things. Quite frankly, our economic crisis is evidence that our materialistic view of life has brought us to the precipice of economic ruin. For those with a consciousness of God, brother Sewell Hall stated the simple truth recently when he said, “People can survive on so little.” Yet, in the world of advertising such simple truth is an abomination!

In our pursuit of “things,” trying to find some sense of fulfillment, we are left disillusioned and disappointed. Yet, we are not left feeling this way because “things” are necessarily inherently immoral or sinful. To the contrary, we are left with such feelings because we have made the pursuit of things the sine qua non (the indispensible condition) of our existence and purpose. We have allowed the pursuit of “things” to define who we are. Consequently, when the “newest” and/or the “new and improved” hits the market, we are tired and disillusioned with the former “newest” or “new and improved.” It is to this which the writer of Ecclesiastes would scream, “Vanity of vanities!”

Jesus also poignantly illustrated the point in the parable of the rich fool, which he prefaced by saying, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15-21) Jesus is not saying don’t acquire things. To the contrary, he is saying whether you have a little or an abundance of things; enjoy them by using them to the glory of God. In so using them, we will never grow disillusioned or disappointed because our pursuit is not things but the glory of God. As we identify ourselves in Him, we will never be put to shame but our lights will always be shining. Is your light shining? What are you pursuing?