January 25, 2010
Tex’s Thought Provokers 008
One Step Ahead Of The Jones
Monsters, Goolies, and Spookables come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They are cleverly disguised at times but we all encounter them.
From the time we are very small to the time of adulthood they never go away, they just change their characters and make us think they are something other than what they are.
What lived under the bed or in your closet as a child, went through a metamorphosis and now resides with the banker, the hospital, the offspring that needs braces, the boss’s closet, inflation, crime in the streets, and so on. They are still monsters none the less, there to be dealt with.
Stress is a monster that is strangling the life out so many folks today. No wonder, it’s environment is a perfect place to live.
It is my firm belief that one day, those in the world of science will be able to link stress to even more illnesses than they have discovered thus far.
There is good stress and bad stress. We need the good stress to stay motivated and to feel the sense of accomplishment at the end of a task. The bad stress though, we can do without. This ugly form of self devouring scourge is at the root of a lot of sickness.
People say that some of the stress that they have is out of their control. “There is nothing I can do about it.” Or could it be that we have convinced ourselves that there is nothing we can do about it? Perhaps we could say that we humans have caused a lot of this stress our self. We live in a world of status. It has always been that way. “Oh…look he drives a Lincoln, he must be important.” “Look…this man has over one hundred camels along with many goats and sheep…he must be important.” “Say….now he has a sharp suit…it must have cost a great deal…he must be important.” “Wow….did you see her dress and coat and shoes…she is walking in high cotton.”
We have all driven ourselves to the point of no return with what used to be a “keeping up with the Jones” attitude, which manifested itself into staying “one step ahead of the Jones”. We want and need this feeling of power over other people. We want to be noticed. We love to have people think we are important. And we think that a fancy home, car, and other perks, will do it for us.
Once this drug like disease takes a hold of us, we are willing to do almost anything imaginable to maintain this status we have achieved for ourselves.
People take it to limits that are simply mind boggling. And it is not just with money and the things it can buy alone. We see it in many other forms as well. “Look at him hit that ball….where would that team be without him?” “Say… listen to her voice…. Its like an angle sent to earth.” This causes us to become so envious we will stop at nothing until….well you know.
Sadly we have all seen examples of those who think themselves to be better Christians than the next guy just so they can feel important about themselves.
Its not just about money, this monster of a disease has been around a long time, and I suspect it will be around for many years to come. Like I said, it is clever, in as much as it can manifest itself into many shapes and sizes.
The best way to deal with a disease, or any kind of problem, is to first and foremost identify the problem, and then the cause. Now that we know what the problem is, the next step is to admit it to ourselves. Just this alone, is a huge step toward recovery. If we become blind to it, then this means, we likely don’t think we have a problem, denial.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves if it is time to do a little self evaluation again. In this I mean myself as well. Some of the questions I should begin with asking myself are:
· Is my home warm and comfortable? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Does my car get me to the places I need to go safely? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Are my clothes clean and warm with not too much sign of wear and tear? If so, why do I think I need new ones?
· Am I getting lots to eat? If so, why do I think I need to eat steak every night?
· Is my television still showing me a good picture? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Do I catch myself feeling better than another? If so, why?
· Do I find myself feeling jealous of another? If so, why?
The list goes on and on. The media in the form of commercials inundates us with a constant barrage of new and better, more expensive, things for us to buy. Convincing us all that we need to have them, we just can’t survive without them. Our friends and neighbours constantly show us things that they have, and if they can have them, then why can’t we?
Then what about all those so called beautiful people selling things to make us all beautiful? False beauty that is what it is. I can tell you, there is only one real way to be beautiful, living as best as we can like Jesus. Forget about the vanity. To me, vanity for the most part, causes uppitiness, very unattractive, to say the least.
I will give you an example of smart marketing and sound “gottcha” principles.
It is not important to state the name of the company, because you will all know it when I speak of it anyway. In the video game world there is one company that is by far and away the leaders in sales. They had and have a very clever market plan. They introduce a new system, zeroing in on our kids, on purpose, because they are an intricate part of the plan. The kids see the advertisements, hear their friends that have them, and they just have to have it. So us being the good hearted parents we are, we go out and we get the new system.
Some of us even get sucked into playing the system as well. Thus the situation becomes worse.
Just when we as parents think surely we have satisfied our kids, the company then introduces a new and better system and we just have to have it. We find that the games are more expensive and that we can’t buy games for the old system any longer.
This has happened to me four times. And yes I am one of those who got sucked into playing the games as well. I know…I’m a big kid. Aw…to know me is to love me though. (Whoops, there goes that braggy side to me again).
Bigger, faster, more colourful, more life like, we just have to have it. It is the world we live in. A rat race, filled with the stress of trying to stay one step ahead of the Jones. In so doing the monster down at the bank and the credit card company grows.
There are some folks that are in positions to do this with no stress at all. For them the toys are just bigger and more expensive, so same thing only different. The other down side to this is some families are not in a position to do this for their kids as easy. Yet they still do it, thus the credit card monster eats them alive.
Then we all fall into the trap of living for earthly non important things.
So how do we deal with this? Like I said, first we have to admit to ourselves that there is a problem. Then we must take steps to correct the situation. Then it is my belief that we have to go to the bible.
The answers to all of life’s problems are in the Word. We have to put our faith in the Lord to change us from the inside out. We have to trust in Jesus. And we have to trust in his word. Especially the words in red.
15 Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.”
Luke 12:15
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “ I will never leave you; I will never run away from you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
Hebrews 13:5
7 “When you are living in the land the Lord your God is giving you, there might be some poor people living among you. You must not be selfish. You must not refuse to give help to them. 8 You must be willing to share with them. You must lend them whatever they need.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
4 The greatest person in God’s kingdom is the one who makes himself humble like this child.
Matthew 18:4
12 People who think they are better than others will be made humble. But people who humble themselves will be made great.
Matthew 23:12
48 Then he said to the followers, “Whoever accepts a little child like this in my name is accepting me. And anyone who accepts me is also accepting the one who sent me. The one among you who is the most humble—this is the one who is great.”
Luke 9:48
17 Give this command to those who are rich with the things of this world. Tell them not to be proud. Tell them to hope in God, not their money. Money cannot be trusted, but God takes care of us richly. He gives us everything to enjoy. 18 Tell those who are rich to do good—to be rich in good works. And tell them they should be happy to give and ready to share. 19 By doing this, they will be saving up a treasure for themselves. And that treasure will be a strong foundation on which their future life will be built. They will be able to have the life that is true life.
1 Timothy 6: 17-19
What it all comes down too, is we have too much. We want too much. And we are willing to do almost anything, including selling our soul to old “Spineless Slim”, all dressed up like a credit card representative.
When we read things such as; “In the west, you measure a man’s wealth by his possessions. In this country, we measure his wealth by his friends.” (Ethiopia)
John Ortberg, “When The Game Is Over – It All Goes Back In The Box” Chapter 2, page 30.
We get an eye opener. If we begin to do a bit of research, we find that compared to many other parts of the world, including even some parts of our world, that we choose to ignore, we are very fortunate people. We have so much; we are all so very rich. And we take it for granted every single day.
How many of us are going to bed hungry? Do we set and wonder if we will be blown up if we go to the store? When we walk down the street, do we think of perhaps being shot?
How many junkies have we seen living in a cardboard box on our sidewalks? In the evening do we see our streets lined with prostitutes? How many drive by shooting have happened in the past week? How many teachers have been beaten and left for dead do we know?
When you are sick do you go to the hospital, what if you could not afford it?
How many times have you really been persecuted because of your faith?
(The above statements are based on my area)
See, to me part of our problem in this area is, we hear and see these terrible things on TV, or we read about them. We feel truly sorry, but we are so far removed from this that we just comment on how terrible it is, and then get on with our lives. After all it is someone else’s problem. And it is far far away from our world.
Those that went on the trip to New York seen things to a certain degree, and the one that comes to mind is the man that went to the streets everyday, and boldly approached people. Putting his life at risk every day for other people’s souls.
Well folks, I can tell you, that these types of hideous living environments with all the craziness that goes with it, is getting closer to us every day.
Once we start to put things such as this in perspective, we begin to change from the inside out. We find ourselves looking, searching, reading, asking, what we can do.
I can tell you one thing for certain sure and with all that is in me. Turn your eyes toward Jesus, because he is our only real hope.
7 Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. You should not give if it makes you unhappy or if you feel forced to give. God loves those who are happy to give.
2 Corinthians 9:7
35 I always showed you that you should work just as I did and help people who are weak. I taught you to remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘You will have a greater blessing when you give than when you receive.’”
Acts 20:35
There are many things to give besides money. Your time, your gifts that the Lord has blessed you with, your help in anyway you can.
In closing I will leave you with this to think about. If you have gifts, they came from the Lord. Remember what has been given to you. The number one thing is the gift of life ever lasting from Jesus. The greatest gift ever given. How blessed we all are!
Until next time, may the Lord bless you with a heart that is hungry for Him, one that is willing to go where He leads you, and one that strives to do what He wants. In Christ’s love Tex
Tex’s Thought Provokers 008
One Step Ahead Of The Jones
Monsters, Goolies, and Spookables come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They are cleverly disguised at times but we all encounter them.
From the time we are very small to the time of adulthood they never go away, they just change their characters and make us think they are something other than what they are.
What lived under the bed or in your closet as a child, went through a metamorphosis and now resides with the banker, the hospital, the offspring that needs braces, the boss’s closet, inflation, crime in the streets, and so on. They are still monsters none the less, there to be dealt with.
Stress is a monster that is strangling the life out so many folks today. No wonder, it’s environment is a perfect place to live.
It is my firm belief that one day, those in the world of science will be able to link stress to even more illnesses than they have discovered thus far.
There is good stress and bad stress. We need the good stress to stay motivated and to feel the sense of accomplishment at the end of a task. The bad stress though, we can do without. This ugly form of self devouring scourge is at the root of a lot of sickness.
People say that some of the stress that they have is out of their control. “There is nothing I can do about it.” Or could it be that we have convinced ourselves that there is nothing we can do about it? Perhaps we could say that we humans have caused a lot of this stress our self. We live in a world of status. It has always been that way. “Oh…look he drives a Lincoln, he must be important.” “Look…this man has over one hundred camels along with many goats and sheep…he must be important.” “Say….now he has a sharp suit…it must have cost a great deal…he must be important.” “Wow….did you see her dress and coat and shoes…she is walking in high cotton.”
We have all driven ourselves to the point of no return with what used to be a “keeping up with the Jones” attitude, which manifested itself into staying “one step ahead of the Jones”. We want and need this feeling of power over other people. We want to be noticed. We love to have people think we are important. And we think that a fancy home, car, and other perks, will do it for us.
Once this drug like disease takes a hold of us, we are willing to do almost anything imaginable to maintain this status we have achieved for ourselves.
People take it to limits that are simply mind boggling. And it is not just with money and the things it can buy alone. We see it in many other forms as well. “Look at him hit that ball….where would that team be without him?” “Say… listen to her voice…. Its like an angle sent to earth.” This causes us to become so envious we will stop at nothing until….well you know.
Sadly we have all seen examples of those who think themselves to be better Christians than the next guy just so they can feel important about themselves.
Its not just about money, this monster of a disease has been around a long time, and I suspect it will be around for many years to come. Like I said, it is clever, in as much as it can manifest itself into many shapes and sizes.
The best way to deal with a disease, or any kind of problem, is to first and foremost identify the problem, and then the cause. Now that we know what the problem is, the next step is to admit it to ourselves. Just this alone, is a huge step toward recovery. If we become blind to it, then this means, we likely don’t think we have a problem, denial.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves if it is time to do a little self evaluation again. In this I mean myself as well. Some of the questions I should begin with asking myself are:
· Is my home warm and comfortable? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Does my car get me to the places I need to go safely? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Are my clothes clean and warm with not too much sign of wear and tear? If so, why do I think I need new ones?
· Am I getting lots to eat? If so, why do I think I need to eat steak every night?
· Is my television still showing me a good picture? If so, why do I think I need a new one?
· Do I catch myself feeling better than another? If so, why?
· Do I find myself feeling jealous of another? If so, why?
The list goes on and on. The media in the form of commercials inundates us with a constant barrage of new and better, more expensive, things for us to buy. Convincing us all that we need to have them, we just can’t survive without them. Our friends and neighbours constantly show us things that they have, and if they can have them, then why can’t we?
Then what about all those so called beautiful people selling things to make us all beautiful? False beauty that is what it is. I can tell you, there is only one real way to be beautiful, living as best as we can like Jesus. Forget about the vanity. To me, vanity for the most part, causes uppitiness, very unattractive, to say the least.
I will give you an example of smart marketing and sound “gottcha” principles.
It is not important to state the name of the company, because you will all know it when I speak of it anyway. In the video game world there is one company that is by far and away the leaders in sales. They had and have a very clever market plan. They introduce a new system, zeroing in on our kids, on purpose, because they are an intricate part of the plan. The kids see the advertisements, hear their friends that have them, and they just have to have it. So us being the good hearted parents we are, we go out and we get the new system.
Some of us even get sucked into playing the system as well. Thus the situation becomes worse.
Just when we as parents think surely we have satisfied our kids, the company then introduces a new and better system and we just have to have it. We find that the games are more expensive and that we can’t buy games for the old system any longer.
This has happened to me four times. And yes I am one of those who got sucked into playing the games as well. I know…I’m a big kid. Aw…to know me is to love me though. (Whoops, there goes that braggy side to me again).
Bigger, faster, more colourful, more life like, we just have to have it. It is the world we live in. A rat race, filled with the stress of trying to stay one step ahead of the Jones. In so doing the monster down at the bank and the credit card company grows.
There are some folks that are in positions to do this with no stress at all. For them the toys are just bigger and more expensive, so same thing only different. The other down side to this is some families are not in a position to do this for their kids as easy. Yet they still do it, thus the credit card monster eats them alive.
Then we all fall into the trap of living for earthly non important things.
So how do we deal with this? Like I said, first we have to admit to ourselves that there is a problem. Then we must take steps to correct the situation. Then it is my belief that we have to go to the bible.
The answers to all of life’s problems are in the Word. We have to put our faith in the Lord to change us from the inside out. We have to trust in Jesus. And we have to trust in his word. Especially the words in red.
15 Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.”
Luke 12:15
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “ I will never leave you; I will never run away from you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
Hebrews 13:5
7 “When you are living in the land the Lord your God is giving you, there might be some poor people living among you. You must not be selfish. You must not refuse to give help to them. 8 You must be willing to share with them. You must lend them whatever they need.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
4 The greatest person in God’s kingdom is the one who makes himself humble like this child.
Matthew 18:4
12 People who think they are better than others will be made humble. But people who humble themselves will be made great.
Matthew 23:12
48 Then he said to the followers, “Whoever accepts a little child like this in my name is accepting me. And anyone who accepts me is also accepting the one who sent me. The one among you who is the most humble—this is the one who is great.”
Luke 9:48
17 Give this command to those who are rich with the things of this world. Tell them not to be proud. Tell them to hope in God, not their money. Money cannot be trusted, but God takes care of us richly. He gives us everything to enjoy. 18 Tell those who are rich to do good—to be rich in good works. And tell them they should be happy to give and ready to share. 19 By doing this, they will be saving up a treasure for themselves. And that treasure will be a strong foundation on which their future life will be built. They will be able to have the life that is true life.
1 Timothy 6: 17-19
What it all comes down too, is we have too much. We want too much. And we are willing to do almost anything, including selling our soul to old “Spineless Slim”, all dressed up like a credit card representative.
When we read things such as; “In the west, you measure a man’s wealth by his possessions. In this country, we measure his wealth by his friends.” (Ethiopia)
John Ortberg, “When The Game Is Over – It All Goes Back In The Box” Chapter 2, page 30.
We get an eye opener. If we begin to do a bit of research, we find that compared to many other parts of the world, including even some parts of our world, that we choose to ignore, we are very fortunate people. We have so much; we are all so very rich. And we take it for granted every single day.
How many of us are going to bed hungry? Do we set and wonder if we will be blown up if we go to the store? When we walk down the street, do we think of perhaps being shot?
How many junkies have we seen living in a cardboard box on our sidewalks? In the evening do we see our streets lined with prostitutes? How many drive by shooting have happened in the past week? How many teachers have been beaten and left for dead do we know?
When you are sick do you go to the hospital, what if you could not afford it?
How many times have you really been persecuted because of your faith?
(The above statements are based on my area)
See, to me part of our problem in this area is, we hear and see these terrible things on TV, or we read about them. We feel truly sorry, but we are so far removed from this that we just comment on how terrible it is, and then get on with our lives. After all it is someone else’s problem. And it is far far away from our world.
Those that went on the trip to New York seen things to a certain degree, and the one that comes to mind is the man that went to the streets everyday, and boldly approached people. Putting his life at risk every day for other people’s souls.
Well folks, I can tell you, that these types of hideous living environments with all the craziness that goes with it, is getting closer to us every day.
Once we start to put things such as this in perspective, we begin to change from the inside out. We find ourselves looking, searching, reading, asking, what we can do.
I can tell you one thing for certain sure and with all that is in me. Turn your eyes toward Jesus, because he is our only real hope.
7 Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. You should not give if it makes you unhappy or if you feel forced to give. God loves those who are happy to give.
2 Corinthians 9:7
35 I always showed you that you should work just as I did and help people who are weak. I taught you to remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘You will have a greater blessing when you give than when you receive.’”
Acts 20:35
There are many things to give besides money. Your time, your gifts that the Lord has blessed you with, your help in anyway you can.
In closing I will leave you with this to think about. If you have gifts, they came from the Lord. Remember what has been given to you. The number one thing is the gift of life ever lasting from Jesus. The greatest gift ever given. How blessed we all are!
Until next time, may the Lord bless you with a heart that is hungry for Him, one that is willing to go where He leads you, and one that strives to do what He wants. In Christ’s love Tex
