Prosperity and Responsibility

by Jerry Bullock

What makes a good life? What are the necessities? Just how much does one really need to live these days? We took our first cruise this year. It was everything the advertisements claim: pampered eating, glitter and entertainment, and people putting on the dog. I enjoyed it and God willing we might do that again but it also was sobering to think how blessed we are compared to so much of the world.

America today is the most prosperous nation in the world, probably the most prosperous in all history. Our lowest annual incomes compare very favorably with $1,191 in Brazil, $980 in Nicaragua, $500 in Nigeria and $85 in Bangladesh. Our guide in Belize said that a school teacher was paid about $15.00 a day.

Recent tragedies have brought home to most of us our prosperity and our wastefulness. It has been said that the average American will throw away more food in a month than most of the people of the world will have to eat in that time.

My purpose is not to shame the reader but to call attention to our danger. No nation in history has ever survived prosperity. The Roman Empire ruled the world until it was toppled by softness, opulence and rampant immorality. When the "good things" of life became the necessities, we quickly lose sight of the real meaning of life.

Lifestyle means a person's total manner of life. It includes attitudes, decisions, activities and their consequences. Lifestyle expresses a person's commitments.

America was built by a people who combined rugged individualism with a sense of compassion, arms outstretched to the downtrodden of the world. Characteristic of the life of Christ and in turn the lifestyle of the Christian is a standing for those whom the world has forgotten. The great danger of opulence and a ME generation is to lose that dominant characteristic.

What happens when a nation forgets its responsibilities? Israel was God's chosen people. They were loved and led; they were chastised and forgiven. Amos, the prophet, carried God's message to Israel and over the years the message come to us: "The sovereign Lord Almighty has given this solemn warning: 'I hate the pride of the people of Israel; I despise their luxurious mansions. I will give their capital city and everything in it to the enemy."

It would do well for us to heed that warning. We need to examine our lives and our personal commitment against that which is truly important. The good life is not what we own but what we give away.