Week Four, 2019

By Senator John Grant, Florida (Retired)

It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory. Proverbs 25:27

The latter 20th century and on into the 21st has been marked by increased consumption and a society that turns wants into needs. Being subconsciously insulated from necessity and transforming more wants into needs hasn’t made us happier. And it certainly hasn’t made us stronger. We have instead a generation drifting into adulthood that has been reared with an entitled and false sense of both how much material comfort we need, and how easily it should come to them.

Credit cards, home equity loans and the like together with aggressive advertising that convinces you that you must have whatever they are hawking. The result has been an absolute disaster. A stunning 30 percent of American adults today are not creditworthy.

As a youngster, I toured the Smithsonian and saw the Hope Diamond, worth $350 million. I learned that it had an historical curse, which brought misfortune and tragedy to persons who owned it or wore it. It brought anything, but happiness.

A focus on acquiring “things” will never yield enough products to produce happiness. It invariably ends in grief and disappointment. Consumerism undermines our faith.

A consumption economy is at complete odds with God. No matter the amount of money, the amount of food, the amount of sex, the amount of entertainment, a consumer in a consumption economy will never be satisfied. God knows it is man’s nature that when material things are in abundant that people will turn away from Him.

Consumption is not necessarily bad. After all we need to consume basics in order to live. We need a house, but not a mansion. We need a car, but not a Rolls Royce. We assign value to ourselves and others based on the goods we purchase. One’s identity is now constructed by the clothes we wear, the vehicle we drive, and the music on our iPod. In short, we are what we consume.

Our identity should be on our spiritual focus….. on Jesus or what’s in our garage. Too many have switched from Lord to label and focus on self-glory and identity.

Where are you?

SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

Results of a recent survey indicate that 51% of senior citizens take at least five different prescription drugs on a regular basis! In addition people take over the counter medications for aches, pains, headaches, digestive issues among others.

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Was George Washington a failure?

As Rick Newman points out in his book, Rebounders, the key to success is not a lack of failure but our response to it. Examples:

• George Washington “lost more battles than he won during the Revolutionary War.”

• Norman Vincent Peale’s wife rescued the manuscript of The Power of Positive Thinking from the trash after it had been rejected repeatedly by New York publishers; it became an all-time bestseller.

• A 1914 fire destroyed Thomas Edison’s manufacturing operations, but the sixty-seven-year-old rebuilt and modernized factories that revolutionized technology.

• A whole body of scientific research has shown that overcoming setbacks can make people stronger, smarter, and more durable.

• Those with positive attitudes about aging are 50 percent less likely to develop the disorder than less positive people

• Positive thinking is a beneficial exercise. Positive thinking about negative experiences is even more valuable.

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FACTS

Florida ranks No. 3 for the most student debt.

Only nine nations have a higher reported abortion rate than the U.S.

The world’s population is living longer and better than ever before. For instance, each day on average:

• 295,000 people gain access to electricity for the first time.

• 305,000 people are able to access clean drinking water for the first time.

• 620,000 people are able to get online for the first time.

• Only about 4 percent of children worldwide die by the age of five, down from 19 percent in 1960.

• Fewer than 10 percent of the world’s population live in extreme poverty, down from more than 50 percent in the 1950s.

Never before has such a large portion of humanity been literate, enjoyed a middle-class cushion, lived such long lives . . . or been confident their children would survive. Let’s hit pause on our fears and frustrations and share a nanosecond of celebration at this backdrop of progress.

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Robots can’t take your job away if you are retired.

Do something today that your future self will thank you for.

Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do. Ken Whitten

When you worship The Lord with real passion, you will likely not be worried about where you are going for lunch! Dwight Short

God reserves the right to interrupt our world at will in order to accomplish His predetermined will. Ken Whitten