Not In the Moment

Part of my job as a marketing professional is to understand consumer behavior. Part of my job as a professor of marketing is to teach my students to understand consumer behavior as well. Basically this means that they must be able to identify the influences and the lifestyle dimensions that impact an individual's purchase decision. The goal is that through this understanding, organizations can help provide potential customers with better information, thereby improving the likelihood that they'll be satisfied with their selection.

Not surprisingly, culture is one of the influences that has a profound impact on consumer behavior. Culture - the sum total of norms, behaviors, and values that guide a society's conduct - is often an elusive quantity to define. Yet, its impact is relentless. Even with all the studies that have been conducted, we still don't completely understand how it shapes who a person becomes.

To make sense of this difficult concept that is culture, researchers have formulated strategies for comparing cultures to one another. One such way that cultures are compared is based on where they fall along certain value dimensions. For example, one might compare how individualistic vs. collective a culture is. Or one might examine the role of youth and age in cultural interactions. Another aspect that is considered is whether a culture is more likely to value immediate gratification vs. delayed gratification. It would probably not surprise readers to learn that America ranks high on the immediate gratification scale (For more information see Hawkins & Mothersbaugh, Consumer Behavior, 2009). Delaying fulfillment of our desires is not one of our strong suits.

However, while this may be the American way, it certainly isn't the biblical one. Proverbs 25:16-28 makes this clear. This series of verses extols the abandonment of excess. And it isn't just in the physical realm that overindulgence should be avoided. As verse 27 shares, we shouldn't be seeking excess praise, any more than we should be seeking an abundant feast. In fact, these verses not only preach the dreadful consequences of prideful indulgence, they share the antidote as well. For, when we aren't concerned with consumption, we share. When we are focused on the present, we seek to acquire; when we are focused on eternity's future, we seek to give. When we cease to live in the moment, we realize that even our enemies can be the benefactors of our good.

The reason for this is simple yet complicated. It's only through recognizing that life is not made up of possessions, but of moments that we realize what we need to do is not live in the moment for today, but make the moment count for eternity.

Beyond Today

"My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD. There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off." - Proverbs 23:15-18

It's easy to get wrapped up in what's going on in our lives. Primarily this is because of the intimate way in which what happens in our lives effects our happiness, our attitude and our ability to make of life what we desire. We get caught up in the trials and travails of today, and spend countless moments searching for how we might change them. We focus on the here and now to the neglect of the ever after.

This tendency to be consumed with the dailyness of our lives is easily understood and quite commonplace. However, the preponderance of its existence doesn't mean that it is beneficial phenomenon. As the above Proverb illustrates, when we focus on today, the Christian will often come up short. We will look at what we've obtained and compare it to our neighbors and be found wanting. We will see the immediate delights of sin, and ignore the deadly consequences When in our foolishness we focus on the attainments of today, we neglect to secure the wisdom that teaches the permanence of eternity.

To combat this, we need to ask God to expand our view. Instead of seeing what we're missing, the Christian needs to look to all that they've received. We need to look beyond today to the hope of tomorrow. And unlike what can be acquired now, this is a hope that can be sustained. And when our Hope is clearly in view, we find peace, no matter what the day brings.

The New Blessing

A recent conversation with a colleague we touched on a topic that is often mentioned, but perhaps rarely discussed. The topic was evangelism, or more specifically the manner in which Christ is presented to non-believers. As my colleague stated (and as my pastor often shares) a lot of evangelism efforts these days start with the fact that God is the solution to your problems. While, ultimately this is true if the problem you are talking about is sin, that's not the place most people start. Usually, there's a Earthly circumstance that is not the way we would like it to be - a broken marriage, a ill relative, a tough economic situation - and God is presented as a way to make you feel better about what's wrong in your life. In other words, God isn't meaningful to your life because He is the Creator of you and is the reason for your existence, He is simply important in that He has the power to change your temporal circumstance. If another solution can also change what's wrong with your life, than well that's just as good. The altogether-differentness (i.e. His holiness) is more of an after-thought rather than the reason why our lives should be centered around praising Him, and the reason we need Him to save us.

The problem with this approach is that not only does it lead to a misunderstood view of what a right response to God looks like (our whole life offered to Him for His purpose) it also misunderstands what God is up to in the life of His people. In discussing Christ's promises, B.B. Warfield writes "prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity of the New." In other words, before God sent His Son to the Earth to be a living sacrifice for our sins, He demonstrated His pleasure, His closeness, with His people through material possessions. This is why many of the Proverbs extol the virtues of the rich man. In His Son's descent, however, He provided the greatest gift He ever could. Therefore, His promises His church not a good life here on Earth, but trials, persecutions, and situations that will refine them to make them more like Him (see John 16:33, John 15:20, James 1:2-4). We present Christ as a way to make this life better, and He is, but only in so much as He changes our focus from the temporal life to the eternal. His blessing is that through the trials of this world, we are better prepared to enjoy what's in the next - His presence, everlasting.

God's still blessing His people, but oftentimes is not in the way we would imagine. How have you experienced God's new blessing? May we, like the apostles, rejoice when we are found worthy to suffer for His name (Acts 5:41).

Wicked Wisdom

The book of Proverbs has much to say about wisdom. In fact, the predominant subject of the book is the instruction of a father to his son on how to acquire and exhibit wisdom. As a concerned parent, it is imperative to King Solomon that his son find and follow the way of the Lord - the only true way of wisdom.

Unfortunately, God is not the only one to make a claim to wisdom. Many of the cliche sayings of our day are offered as wise ways to conduct our life. "If it doesn't hurt anyone, it's ok." "Truth is personal." "It's my life, I can do with it what I want." All of these, and more ways of the world, are posited as truisms. And yet none of them are in fact true. None of them offer the promises of God's wisdom; promises that ensure that although our life may be difficult, our rewards will be eternal.

"Wisdom" that leads us away from God and His purposes can only be called wicked for it offers itself as truth when it its far from it. The ways of this world seek to offer us peace and prosperity, but in fact they rarely offer either We must look at anything that claims to be wisdom in light of God's Word and when it stands apart from that truth, we must abandon it for that which is truly wise.