Challenging Consumetism by Joshua Becker

9 Intentional Ways to Challenge Consumerism in Your Life WRITTEN by JOSHUA BECKER · 165 COMMENTS “Don’t buy what you don’t need.” Consumerism is not a pathway to joy and meaning in life. This is not a new revelation. In fact, we all know it to be true. If specifically asked the question, nobody would ever say the secret to a joyful, meaningful life is to buy a lot of stuff. Deep down in our hearts, we know we were made for something bigger—something more significant than mere consumption. Nobody really believes happiness is directly tied to the number of things we own. Yet almost all of us live like it. We work more hours than ever before, earn more income, but save less. Personal debt has increased dramatically over the previous three decades. And consumer spending has been exalted to a virtue in our society—even patriotic. As a result, the average credit card holder now carries 4 different credit cards in his or her pocket. Shopping malls outnumber high schools 2 to 1. 70% of Americans visit a shopping mall each week. Televisions outnumber persons in American homes. Home sizes have doubled in the past 50 years. And consumer debt has risen to 35% of household income. Will Rogers said it like this, “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” We never intentionally set out to buy more than we need or spend more than we make. But here’s the problem: Mindless consumption always turns into excessive consumption. (tweet that) And excess consumption results in more stress, more burden, more pressure to impress, more envy, less financial freedom, less generosity, less contentment—and I haven’t even begun to mention the environmental impact. It is time to rethink our spending habits, rediscover thoughtfulness and intentionality in our purchases, and remind ourselves that happiness is not on sale at the department store. Buying more is not the solution. We were made for greater pursuits than material possessions. And our lives should reflect that truth. How then, might we begin to rethink and challenge mindless consumerism in our lives? Consider this intentional approach: 1. Stop and reevaluate. Look at the life you have created. Are you finding the time, money, and energy for the things that matter most? Have your possessions become a burden on your life in any way? Slow down long enough to honestly evaluate the whole picture: your income, your mortgage, your car payment, your spending habits, your day-to-day pursuits. Are you happy? Or is there, perhaps, a better way? 2. Stop copying other people. Just because your neighbors, classmates, and friends are chasing a certain style of life does not mean you need to as well. Your life is too unique to live like everyone else. And if you think you’ll be happier by following all the latest trends in society, you are wrong. Just ask anybody who has stopped. 3. Understand your weaknesses. Recognize your trigger points. Are there certain stores that prompt unnecessary purchases in your life? Are there products, addictions, or pricing patterns (clearance sales) that prompt an automatic response from you? Maybe there are specific emotions (sadness, loneliness, grief) that give rise to mindless consumption. Identify, recognize, and understand these weaknesses. 51% of the solution can be found by simply recognizing the problem. 4. Look deep into your motivations. Advertisers play on our motivations by appealing to our desires in subtle ways. Advertisements are no longer based on communicating facts about a product. Instead, they promise adventure, reputation, esteem, joy, fulfillment, and sex. What inner-motivations are subconsciously guiding your purchases? What motivations (greed, envy) need to be rooted out? And what motivations (meaning, significance) need to find their fulfillment elsewhere? 5. Seek contribution with your life and usefulness in your purchases. To live is to consume. As contributing members of society, we are going to work and earn and purchase and consume. But we are more than consumers, we are contributors. Our presence on this earth ought to bring value to the people around us. Purchase only what you need to more effectively accomplish your unique role in this world—everything else is only a distraction. Just because you can buy something doesn’t mean you should. 6. Count the hidden cost of each purchase. Too often, when we purchase an item, we only look at the sticker price. But this is rarely the full cost. Our purchases always cost more. They require our time, energy, and focus (cleaning, organizing, maintaining, fixing, replacing, removing). They prompt worry, stress, and attachment. Henry David Thoreau said it best, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” 7. Test your limits. Experiment with a no-shopping challenge. You set the terms—even the world’s biggest shopper can find one experiment to test their boundaries. Go 30 days with no consumer purchases, 60 days without visiting the mall, or 120 days without buying clothes. You set the specific challenge based on your needs. You will break the cycle of shopping in the short-term and lay the groundwork for greater victory in the long-term. 8. Give more things away. Your life will feel lighter. Your heart will feel warmer. The world will be better. And you will be reminded shopping is not the answer. 9. Do more of what makes you happy. Your possessions are not making you happy. Once our basic needs have been met, the happiness found in consumerism is fleeting at best. Instead, find what it is that truly makes you happy and do more of it. I find my happiness in faith, family, friends, and contribution. Your list may differ slightly. But either way, owning a whole bunch of stuff is almost certainly not on it. Make intentionality your highest pursuit. Not consumerism. 87.9kShare Tweet 7.8kPin

Leadership plain and simple

Three Indisputable Traits Of A True Leader http://flip.it/mLFtDR

Confident in God

Confident in God

Confidence in God comes when we understand that in Christ we are already accepted.

We will not be truly confident though till we understand that it's not what we do, how we behave, or how we live or what others think of us that causes us to be accepted. We already are.

To be confident we need to understand the truth of Significance. We are significant already.

Significance comes from knowing the truth about who we really are

- Our righteousness is from God
- We are accepted by him
- Our significance is in who we are in God and not what others say or think

Significance comes from addressing the lies we've been told.

Learning to live in the truth is important if we are to live confidently

We self sabotage when we believe the lies. Freedom comes from truth.

John 8:31-32
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

In his work Search for Significance Robert McGee* addresses this issue and the lies we tend to believe at least in part.

For instance:
Have you ever felt this way?

"When I fail at something, I feel lousy about myself…When others don’t approve of me, I can’t seem to get over it…Sometimes it feels like I’ll never measure up."

I think many of us can relate to these words, but our value is not based on others approval of us.

There is a formula we often believe. It says:
Self-worth = Performance + Other’s Opinions

Bit this is not true. Believing this lie stops us from living in freedom and at some stage, maybe some of us even now, believe this, at least partially.

In his book 'The Search for Significance' McGee highlights four lies that can keep us bound but he also shows us the truth and the truth, if we embrace it, will set us free.

According to McGee these are the lies  (summarised here by Paul Sohn)**. He explains them and follows up with God's truth about them.

1. The Performance Trap – “I must meet certain standards to feel good about myself.”

Those who struggle with “The Performance Trap” have a fear of failure, perfectionism, manipulating others to achieve success; they can also cowardly withdraw from healthy risks. God’s answer to “The Performance Trap” is His justification. This means God has not only forgiven me of my sins but also has granted me the righteousness of Christ, therefore I am pleasing to the Father. At my very essence, as a son of God, I am good enough. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2. The Approval Addict – “I must be approved by certain others to feel good about myself.”

The person who is “The Approval Addict” fears rejection and is oversensitive to criticism; they will withdraw from others to avoid disapproval. God’s answer to this false belief is reconciliation. This means that although I was one time hostile toward God and alienated from Him, I am now forgiven and have been brought into an intimate relationship with Him. Consequently, I am totally accepted by God (Col 1:21-22)

3. The Blame Game –  “Those who fail (including myself) are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.”

Those who suffer from the “Blame Game” fear punishment. They also try to punish others, and their drive is to avoid failure. God’s answer to this problem is propitiation which means that that by His death on the cross Christ satisfied God’s wrath; therefore, I am deeply loved by God (John 4:9-11)

4. Shame – “I am what I am. I cannot change. I am hopeless.”

Those who suffer from “Shame” is marked by feelings of hopelessness. Shame is also marked by inferiority, passivity, and loss of creativity, isolation, and withdrawal from others. . God’s answer for shame is regeneration, which means that when we place our faith in Christ we become a new creation.

John 3:3-6 says, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Questions:

What false beliefs have you lived with that prevent you from living a life of significance?

What truth does the Word of God give us about who we are?

How will I apply the truth of God's word to my life to live in the significance his Word says I already have?

*The Search for Significance - Robert McGee
**http://paulsohn.org/the-search-for-significance-seeing-your-true-worth-through-gods-eyes/

Conquering excuses

The following is from Valorie Burton. You can find the link to her web page below. She has short readable blogs and practical follow up questions. Today's blog was on the excuses we make and I wanted to share it with you.

'4 Questions to Conquer Excuses

What’s the reason you have for not pursuing your most authentic dream? Whatever this dream is, in your life or career, you probably have a reason it hasn’t happened yet. But if you look behind the reasons, you might just discover that they could be reclassified as excuses—thoughts you are embracing that sabotage your dreams. Excuses are born of pessimistic thinking style and fixed mindset. Now, I’m not trying to beat you up about your excuses. I want to help you break free of them so you can go to the next level. Whatever you want to call them— excuses or reasons ---they are in the way. And you are the only one who can demand that they go.

So what’s your excuse? Is it a lack of time? Money? Is it that person who is always tearing you down? Is the dream just too hard? To complex? Too much of a commitment? Maybe your excuse is a lack of education or experience. Or perhaps if you just had more contacts or more friends of fewer obligations or weighed less or….

You get the point. Excuses allow us to justify our lack of progress. They can even bring you sympathy. They let you off the hook. But the truth is, when there is something you were meant to do, you’ll never truly be off the hook. You must do it, which means you must let go of your excuses. That means facing your fear---whether it is fear of success and all the expectations that come with it or fear of failure and all the disappointments or embarrassment that come with it,

Whatever you fear, the good news is that you can muster the courage to conquer it. Choose to let go of all excuses for why you cannot have what you want in life. Coach yourself with these four excuse shattering questions.

1. What’s my excuse?

2. What does this excuse give me permission to do (or not do)?

3. If I could no longer use this excuse, what would I have to do instead?

4. Why don’t I just do that now?

When you drop your excuses, you discover that the bottom line is you can choose to pursue your dreams---or not. You can live life full or you can live it small. Living fully takes courage. Courage is a choice. The choice is yours.'

https://valorieburton.com

I encourage you to seriously consider these questions and identify the excuses we make. Just articulating and acknowledging them is a great start. Begin dealing with your excuses today.

Love Jill

Called Together

I've been reading about faith communities and today I was impacted by the following words from 'Called Together' by Jonathon Dodson and Brad Watson.

 'What Community Is
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” —Acts 2:42-47

 What if we decided not to be a group of individuals who try to follow Jesus on our own, occasionally gathering for a church service or a bible study; rather, we committed to being a community of people devoted to Jesus and one another!'

And
 'gospel community says: “We are already accepted in Christ; therefore, we love, forgive, and accept one another.”'

As I meditated on these thoughts I was reminded afresh of the uniqueness of true Christian community. Community is commitment to one another; a willingness to love deeply and forgive freely; a willingness to accept each other as we are and encourage each other to become like Christ, with our focus on who he is and his acceptance of us.

This is possible because we are already accepted in Christ. Our motivation comes from being accepted by him and not from trying to gain the acceptance of others.

Tim Keller notes that religion says, “I obey, therefore I am accepted,” but the gospel says, “I am accepted, therefore I obey.”

Dodson and Watson pose questions for us around what it means to live in community. They are well worth considering and acting on.

 'What would it look like for us to become this kind of community? • What must change in our hearts? • What must change in our daily-lives? • What must change in how we view our lives? • Is it worth it? Why'