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Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. | |
We went in the wrong direction. |
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Useless Lives of Selfish Indulgence
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| Eze
16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,
fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. We might think of the sins of Sodom as pride, gluttony, slothfulness, and greed. I once knew a non-custodial parent who lamented that the laziest person he knew was his son who would only get up from a video game to go to the refrigerator. It was one of the saddest things I have heard. If we apply the measurement standard of Sodom to our own culture, we can find that we often meet and even exceed the levels of selfishness Sodom achieved. The biblical reference to “daughters” implies characteristics that have been institutionalized in a culture. The self esteem movement took off in the 1970s particularly influential with how parents raised their children. With less external discipline applied to them, many grew up with less self-discipline and continued that with their children. It is human nature for pride to fill the vacuum created by an absence of truth and reality. Gluttony can be seen with the increase of obesity. Contributing to this is bottle feeding infants because natural feeding is inconvenient. However, other factors also contribute such as the industrialization of agriculture and the marketing of food products particularly to appeal to taste stimulation. The phrase “fulness of bread” might indicate a state of continual satiation. An abundance of “idleness” is an interesting phrase. It touches on why God cursed the earth after Adam and Eve sinned. If we are occupied with trying to grow food, find shelter from the elements, and make clothing, we will have less time for our natural inclination towards self-stimulating indulgences to have a corrosive effect on our character. H.G. Wells in his Outline of History asked his readers to be understanding of the Roman emperors by considering how they themselves would have turned out if every wish they had from birth was fulfilled. TV used to be called a “vast wasteland” and Edison called his invention of movies as time wasting. How much more would cell phones and social media be considered self-indulgent. A lack of concern for the poor is also cited as a sin of Sodom. Our culture has convinced itself that the government takes care of the poor such that we do not have to concern ourselves with them. In addition, in our modern society, we do not even know each other well enough to know if there are financial difficulties. Ever since Adam and Eve charted a path away from God we have that within us that tends towards self-destructive indulgences. For Christians this is called the “flesh” in the bible. Christians are supposed to mature in faith such that we walk by the Spirit and not the flesh. Sadly most Christians remain immature and walk in the flesh such that we can follow the world down the path to join Sodom. Unfortunately the path to Christian maturity is an active one that is seldom pursued. It requires humility, discernment, seeking, and selflessness (what the bible calls love 1Cor 13:4-7). the first step on this path is dissatisfaction with complacency. |
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Pictures and views of our farm | Some of our animals | See some of the old-fashioned crafts we are trying to relearn | ||