Sermon: Strategies for Interfacing with Babylon Without Becoming Assimilated (Part Two)

Restoring Contentment in a Culture of Greed and Covetousness
#1770
David F. Maas
Given 29-Jun-24; 70 minutes 2024-06-29

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Please turn over to Philippians 4:11-12, where the apostle Paul models a state of mind that all of God’s called out saints must emulate if they hope to successfully navigate through Satan’s frenetic, dog-eat-dog competitive, breakneck-paced culture, established on greed, covetousness, self-centeredness, and the vicious ubiquitous way of get.

Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

The Amplified edition offers the additional salient details: “Not that I speak from [any personal] need, for I have learned to be content [am self-sufficient through Christ, satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or uneasy] regardless of my circumstances. I know how to get along and live humbly [in difficult times], and I also know how to enjoy abundance and live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret [of facing life], whether well-fed or going hungry, whether having abundance or being in need.

In his insightful article “How to Live a Life of Contentment,” David Peach encourages followers of Christ to “take comfort in the fact that contentment can be learned,” adding that “when we accept that contentment can be learned, we are well on our way to experiencing the contentment God has prepared for us, namely the wonderful peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) reserved for God’s chosen saints.”

In these verses from Philippians, we learn that the apostle Paul had over the years learned to be content—not that he had always been content, but instead contentment was a trait he had diligently and systematically learned. We remember, of course, Paul did not live a charmed or easy life. In II Corinthians 11:25, he revealed how he had been beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and thrown into prison for the sake of the Gospel. In II Corinthians 12, we learn that he had a severe physical limitation, a thorn in the flesh, which He begged Almighty God to take from him, and while he was not content with the affliction, he graciously accepted God’s answer of “no.” We all need to acquiesce graciously.

To be sure, many of us have struggled with grave trials and afflictions either in the past or presently, but we can take immense comfort that we have the capability of emulating the apostle Paul, who has faithfully taught us that contentment can, and indeed must be learned to cope with the intense stresses of the current Babylonian system. In this second installment of the series: “Strategies for Interfacing Babylon Without Becoming Assimilated,” we will explore some techniques or practices to restore contentment which has been robbed from us in our current culture.

In this message, we will investigate three major contributory causes of the discontent our Babylonish system is producing, namely:

(1) Greed and covetousness: the excessive desire for material things, often with a concomitant disregard for human relationships.

(2) The frantic pace of living, sometimes labeled by sociologists as hurry sickness, described in Daniel 12:4, is thoroughly analyzed by Richard Ritenbaugh in his six-part CGG Weekly “Beating the Rat Race” (2010).

(3) We need to avoid regretting the past and habitually fearing the future, which results in failing to live in the present.

We will then explore the antidotes to these lethal contentment destroyers, which consist of:

(1) The antidote to the first cause of discontentment (greed and covetousness) is cherishing relationships (especially with God and our spiritual siblings) rather than things, the spiritual rather than physical possessions. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once proclaimed in his essay on Nature, “The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape.”

Emerson reminds us that the experience of looking at and receiving pleasure from merely gazing upon it is the best thing that the land has to offer, “yet to this, their warranty-deeds give no title.” On my morning walks through the Corriganville Movie Ranch, now a conservancy of the Simi Valley Park System, I may playfully refer to it as “my ranch,” but I realize that I share this sentiment with all the other residents of Simi Valley who share it with me. Truly, the best things in life are free as well, but also incredibly priceless, just as our calling into God’s Family and the plethora of spiritual gifts Almighty God has bestowed on every one of God’s called out saints—namely you, brothers and sisters.

Last week, Ryan McClure asked us to reflect on the importance of gifts we have received over the years. I have to tell you I got a lump in my throat when my youngest son Aaron, who lives in Illinois, made me a commitment of his precious time—he agreed to spend one hour a week on Skype playing music together as he plays the trumpet and I play the clarinet. I greatly enjoy that.

Then this past Father’s Day, the lump in my throat got bigger and even a tear to my eye when my second son Eric gave me a gift—he wrote on the back of a Father’s Day card a commitment to go walking with me twice a month as I trudge the boulders and canyons of the Santa Susana Mountains. This thoughtful expenditure of his time is more valuable to me than a million (yes, even a trillion) dollars in gold.

I would highly recommend for any of our young people in this congregation, who might have spent time racking their brains to find a suitable Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Feast of Tabernacle’s gift, that an investment of time can be far more loving and priceless than any physical gift you could ever give them. Again, we must learn to cherish relationships—precious time spent with our family, our spiritual siblings, but especially time spent with our heavenly Father and Our Lord, Savior, and affianced Bridegroom Jesus Christ.

(2) The antidote to the frantic pace of living, or hurry sickness, is to slow down, move less frantically, but instead more deliberately, practicing more slowly, and concentrating on fewer things, cutting the to do list down from 10 to 3 things but improving the quality as we learn to focus rather than to flit around like a moth before a flickering flame.

(3) To avoid regretting the past and fearing the future is to live in day tight compartments, living one day at a time, remembering that God Almighty describes Himself in the present tense. “I AM.”

My brother in Christ James Beaubelle suggested a fourth possibility and that is when someone dies, there are no further complaints about discontentedness—somewhat like the individual who posted the meme on Facebook, “The dead don’t hurt.” I am not yet qualified or ready to expand upon this fourth point.

In his sermon-article, “Greed vs. Contentment: Seventh in a Series on I and II Timothy,” John A. Huffman, Jr. declares that “the biblical thesis that occurs again and again throughout the entire Old and New Testament is that greed, by its very nature, has totally eliminated our possibility for contentment.” Huffman insists that no sin is more pervasive, at least in the Southern California narcissistic, materialistic culture, than the sin of greed, depriving thousands of individuals of genuine, lasting contentment. We remember that the apostle Paul’s first teaching on greed was an emphasis on how disruptive it can be in promoting a false minister’s or false teacher’s craving for attention, power, and gain. Please permit me to read I Timothy 6:3-5 from the Amplified Bible:

I Timothy 6:3-5 (AMP) If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine and teaching which is in agreement with godliness (personal integrity, upright behavior), he is conceited and woefully ignorant [understanding nothing]. He has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, which produces envy, quarrels, verbal abuse, evil suspicions, and perpetual friction between men who are corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth, who think that godliness is a source of profit [a lucrative, money-making business] withdraw from them.

As Richard Ritenbaugh explained in his Pentecost offertory message, the context for the oft-misquoted aphorism in I Timothy 6:10 ‘money is the root of all evil’ is actually a somber warning from the apostle Paul to ministers who wish to enrich themselves using the pretext of God’s Word, stating that the ‘love of money is a root [among many others] of all evil.’ Twisting Scripture with the intent of becoming wealthy is criminally evil. Greed for money, because of producing constant comparison with others, leads to perpetual discontent. In I Timothy 6:7, Paul reminds us that we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. We have all heard the aphorism, “There are no pockets in shrouds.”

John Huffman, reflecting on the multiple funerals he has conducted, declares emphatically, “It is quite clear that the one of greatest material wealth and the one of most modest circumstances both come into the world and leave the world with exactly the same amount of material possessions—none!” (Hmm, maybe I should have included James Beaubelle’s proposed fourth point.)

In Psalm 49:16-17 (please permit me to read the passage in the Amplified Classic edition,) we are advised:

Psalm 49:16-17 (AMP) Be not afraid when [an ungodly] man becomes rich, when the wealth and glory of his house are increased; for when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him.

In his August 2014 article, titled “Greed and Contentment,” Bruce Goettsche insists that perpetual lack of contentment drives our economy, stating that, “we live in a world that is anchored to people being discontent. The lack of contentment seems to fuel our economy,” echoing Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in the 1987 movie, “Wall Street,” ‘Greed is good!’ capturing the essence of the Darwinian evolutionary spirit—the classic affirmation of Satan’s way of get practiced by the majority of the world’s cultures, probably especially in the governments and economies run by Jacob’s offspring.

In his October 2009 article, “Finding Contentment in a World Built for Greed,” Tim Smith identifies specific ways that the Babylonish culture keeps its constituents in a perpetual state of discontent, including advertising, instant credit, the faulty obsession that life is entirely about us, and the tendency to tie or connect self-esteem to our possessions. Tim Smith reminds us that we are barraged with continuous ads aimed at getting us to buy more and more stuff. Similarly, Richard Ritenbaugh, in his May 28, 2010 CGG Weekly article “Beating the Rat Race, Part One” used a similar metaphor, describing TV commercials coming at us at a machine gun pace. In fact, our entire economy is built on our spending more on more stuff we are conditioned to intensely want, but do not really need.

When we turn on the TV, we must contend with endless commercials. When we log on to the Internet, we find it full of ads. Every day, I receive dozens of “action needed” alerts from TEMU, screaming “claim your $50.00 now.” Even Bible Gateway floods me with annoying ads to buy this upgraded app to enhance my Bible understanding, “For less than $5 a month, gain access to $3,100 worth of premium resources to enhance your study of Scripture.”

We are subject to endless annoying infomercials advertising superior proprietary formulas which claim to render all competitors inferior. Like the Serpent tempted Mother Eve, we are conditioned to question the integrity of any competitor’s product, while promising a simple shortcut to the solution.

Richard Ritenbaugh, in his CGG Weekly, “Beating the Rat Race, Part One,” compared Satan’s society to a crowded Turkish Bazaar offering amazing deals and undercutting composition, where “dozens of vendors hawk their wares all at once, shouting that their goods are better than others, cajoling passerby with promises of amazing deals, undercutting their competitors [I might add, after the manner of the clever Serpent had done with Mother Eve, casting doubt on our Creator’s motives], wheeling and dealing, and ultimately unloading their worthless trinkets on bewildered shoppers who know they have been hoodwinked but cannot tell how it happened.”

When we answer our phone, we must disentangle ourselves from telemarketers. Over the past year, I have accepted several friend requests on Facebook—from people I did not know who later frantically tried to get me to apply for a dubious free government grant. When I refused to make such an application, they instantaneously un-friended me.

The average American or Canadian, according to Tim Smith, will be exposed to more than 1,000,000 advertisements in their lifetime that “promise happiness and an easier life if they had that new exercise machine, new sweeper, the right tan or the right makeup or the right clothes or the right car.” To feed the cravings produced by advertising, the banks have made it effortless to attain instant credit, inevitably creating a nation of discontented bondslaves. Consider the warning in Proverbs 22:7 that the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. If we owe money, the lender will control our lives until the loan is paid back.

Years ago (perhaps I should say years and years ago) when we wanted to buy something, we would place it on layaway until we had all the money to pay for it. But today, we are tempted into economic slavery with instant credit, no payments or interest for a year or more. This is what greed is all about. When we have been conditioned by advertising to not be satisfied or content with what we have and can afford, we just glom onto more easily attained free credit at any cost, making it possible to have what we want right now.

As of the first quarter of 2024, the total credit card debt in the United States was $1.12 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve—significantly higher than the pre-pandemic level of $927 billion. Today the average American cardholder has a balance of around $5,733, with Generation X owing approximately $8,134 per person, while my generation, the so-called Silent Generation, owing approximately $3,316 per person.

Advertisers have succeeded in trapping us into believing that life totally revolves around us. We are reminded over and over, it is about our happiness and our needs being met, not about others. McDonald’s tells us “You deserve a break today, and “Have it your own way.” The US Army tells us, “Be all that you can be,” Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum tells us “Double your pleasure, double your fun.”

The culture of greed has convinced us to connect our self-esteem to our possessions rather than to our character. We mistakenly are conditioned to evaluate a person’s worth by what they own. To the question, “how much is it worth?” we automatically calculate the answer in terms of dollars and cents, pounds, rubles, yen, or pesos. Our Babylonish materialistic culture has convinced us that we are less of a person if we have not accumulated lots and lots of things. And, of course, too many of us have bought into this nonsense, thinking we must have this car or these clothes because everybody else does.

But having things does not equate to happiness or contentment. As a matter of fact, as I reached 80 years of age, I developed greater discontent and anxiety trying to figure out how to get rid of all these things I have accumulated over the years. I still battle a mindset I inherited from my late mother and father, who were in their teen years when the Great Depression inspired a tendency to hoard or hang on to things because we never know when we are going to need them. The hoarding behavior, hanging on to things, resembles a clinical obsessive disorder in which we derive security by hanging on to accumulated stuff.

In his August 2014 article, “Greed and Contentment,” Bruce Goettsche declares that “we are so inundated with the material that many of us suffer from the W-A-N-T disease. Our lives are filled with frustration because anytime we are able to secure, it seems that we need another. It is an endless treadmill.”

Author and theologian Chuck Swindoll referred to this malady as the “if only” disease, characterized by expressions such as, “If only I had more money,” “If only I could make better grades,” “If only I hadn’t come from such a bad background,” “If only the business could have succeeded,” “If only I would’ve said “No” to drugs,” “If only I hadn’t had that accident,” etc.

Describing the so-called “Me Generation,” one prominent TV evangelist gave this appraisal: “It was the eighties that saw greed elevated to the status of a bug-eyed idol. Fewer and fewer decisions were made on the basis of values, morals, and a sense of justice. Instead, answers came wrapped around appetites—the kind described in I John 2:16—namely the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Does this fulfill my needs? Does it satisfy my sexual hunger? Quench my thirst for more? Feed my lust for more? The key adjective was “my.” Our cultural role model switched from Mother Teresa to Madonna, the Material Girl. Clearly, in today’s degenerate society, self-interest is not only tolerated, but actively promoted and encouraged. Sadly, we have been taught the lesson continually: More for me is better for me. The world be damned.”

In Tim Smith’s article, “Finding Contentment in a World Built for Greed,” after quoting Psalm 23:3, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” makes the following insightful addendum: The psalmist proclaims “I shall not want because the Lord has provided for all my needs (though probably not all our wants). For example, I shall not want another pair of shoes. I shall not want that new home. I shall not want that new car. I shall not want those latest fashions. Often, we need to be reminded that, ‘I shall not want.’”

Back in 1937, composer Virgil Thomson composed a beautiful hymn, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” for the documentary movie The River, setting Psalm 23 to music, proclaiming the certainty of God’s providence. We sang this piece many times in the Glendale church choir. Please turn over to Philippians 4:19 for another reminder of God’s active providence.

Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 6:25, we find perhaps the classic illustration of the certainty of God’s providence. Permit me to read this passage the from the Amplified Bible:

Matthew 6:25-33 (AMP) Therefore I tell you, stop being worried or anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted) about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, as to what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow [seed] nor reap [the harvest] nor gather [the crops] into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by worrying can add one hour can add one hour to [the length of] his life? [It is certainly more probable that we can shorten the length of our lives by worry and anxiety.] And why are you worried about clothes? See how the lilies and wildflowers grow; they do not labor nor do they spin [wool to make clothing], yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory and splendor dressed himself as one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive and green today and tomorrow is [cut and] thrown [as fuel] into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Therefore do not worry or be anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted), saying ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear? For the [pagan] Gentiles eagerly seek all these things [but do not worry,] for your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right— the attitude and character of God] and all these things will be given to you also.

David, in Psalm 37:25 tells us, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” Having reflected over my past 80 years, and especially the 58 years in God’s church, Almighty God has totally attended to all my needs and has furthermore generously steered me away from those intense Jeremiah 17:9 carnal wants which would have most certainly scuttled my spiritual progress and possibly even my salvation.

In Daniel 12:4, the Archangel Michael described to Daniel a prophecy about the last days when many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase exponentially as pace of life becomes frantic, frenetic, hectic, enervating, and super-manic, a set of descriptors that accurately describe our current culture.

In preparation for this message, I read through a series of CGG Weekly’s Richard Ritenbaugh prepared between May and July 2010, titled “Beating the Rat Race.” In Part One, he used several familiar metaphors—running to and fro like a headless chicken, a frantic rat race, and six billion ants scurrying, describing the maddening enervating pace of life. Richard explains that “running to and fro” can be attributed to increasing knowledge. The rapid flow of information makes everyone live in a hurry; we are all dashing and jerking around like the proverbial headless chicken. To change the metaphor, many of us have had to enter the rat race just to get by. The rat race is such a demanding lifestyle that to keep from falling behind, we must pick up the pace of our lives drastically, devoting far more time and energy to “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22) than we would like.”

Another analogy Richard employs is six billion plus ants all scurrying about the anthill, trying to set as much in store before winter sets in (Proverbs 6:6-8). “The pace of life is almost maddening—ceaseless, frenzied, pulsating, enervating. Everything, yes everything, seems to be “24/7/365” these days. If a product or service is not “fast,” “speedy,” or “instant” it is considered to be worthless. Who has time for slow, leisurely, or gradual anymore?”

Richard’s use of the ant metaphor triggered in me some curiosity about whether ants ever sleep or rest. I learned from Katie Piercy’s November 20, 2021 article “Do Ants Sleep? How, When, Where” explained that:

Ants do sleep, though not quite in the same way we do. They take short power naps throughout the day at regular intervals. How long they sleep depends on the species and the type of ant. [Piercy continues], It appears that ants don’t sleep all at one time, or even over large periods of time. Instead, worker ants appear to take power naps throughout the day. Studies on fire ants have shown they will sleep for a few minutes at a time, several hundred times a day. In total, they will sleep around four hours a day while the queen ant indulges in longer periods of time, usually around six minutes, adding up to roughly nine hours a day,” [more than the average human sleeps].

Back to the discussion of today’s frantic pace of life, hurry or speed characterize the end time Babylonian system which we are experiencing right now, a major destroyer of contentment and peace. Back in 1965, while taking an undergraduate course in sociology, I read with interest a description of the state of the world, pointing out a disturbing phenomenon called “symptoms of hurry” which was not even at a fraction of the pace we currently experience.

Kelsey Borresen wrote an intriguing article on May 4, 2021 in the Huffpost UK, titled “Six Signs You’re Dealing with ‘Hurry Sickness,’” namely “a behavior pattern (not a diagnosable condition) characterized by chronic rushing and anxiousness and an overwhelming, persistent sense of urgency—even when there’s no need to be moving so fast, typical of the type A Personality.” The six symptoms of “hurry sickness” she outlined in her article describes the state of mind experienced by God’s saints as the Beast power will attempt to wear out the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7; Revelation 12:6).

The six symptoms consist of the following:

1.) We treat everything like a race. Borreson admonishes us that while some situations do require us to move with haste—like when we need to meet an important work deadline or get to the airport on time for a flight, others, perhaps most others, do not require such panic. Sadly, people with hurry sickness have difficulty differentiating between when the hustle is necessary and when it is not. Lee Chambers, an environmental psychologist and well-being consultant based in the UK warns us that, “If you find yourself treating even small, everyday tasks like shopping, eating or driving as a race, and any delay causes feelings of anxiety, you might be dealing with hurry sickness.”

Borreson identifies the second symptom of hurry sickness as:

2.) We find it impossible to do just one task at a time. In the words of Richard Jolly, an organizational consultant and adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s School of Management, “When you’re dealing with hurry sickness, multitasking is your friend. In fact, focusing on just one task—even for a short time—feels unbearable to you. You’ll try to figure out what else you can squeeze in while you microwave your lunch or brush your teeth.”

In his article, “Time Organization,” motivational specialist, the late Paul Meyer stresses, “Don’t try to be ambidextrous, either physically or mentally. If you try to do one task, while thinking about another, both tasks will suffer, and you will do poorly on both.” Numerous studies have shown that such multitasking is ultimately less productive than working on one task at a time.

Furthermore, in Scripture, Almighty God makes it abundantly clear that double-mindedness or split allegiances place our spiritual growth and development—and ultimately our salvation—in peril. The apostle James’ entire epistle touches on the theme of double-mindedness, warning that if our prayers vacillate between doubt and faith, we may end up with nothing. This fact leads him to conclude, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

The third symptom of hurry sickness which Borreson identifies is:

3.) We get highly irritable when encountering a delay. For example, according to John Schaubroeck, a Professor of Management at the University of Missouri declares, “When we stand in line at the bank or post office, sit in the waiting room for a doctor’s appointment, or get stuck in traffic (a daily occurrence in southern California) it really gets our blood boiling and our tongues ready to scream invectives. We find ourselves getting anxious and frustrated in traffic even if we do not need to arrive at our destination at a particular time.”

Our local classical music station, KUSC, makes the commute easier at the traditional road rage hour (5:00 P.M.) by providing “The Great Escape,” a stream of soothing calm music to soothe the frazzled nerves of thousands of motorists. Personally, I find it difficult to control my unruly tongue in the midst of a traffic jam, especially if the cause is an immature driver (a five-year-old spoiled brat in an adult body—we have many of those in southern California), it is easy to lose our tempers, but the second wisest man who has ever lived has counseled us in Proverbs 29:11 that “a fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.” Furthermore, Jesus’ half-brother James assures us that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20.) Earlier in this same epistle, James outlines the process by which all of God’s chosen saints acquire the last and most difficult fruit of the Spirit to attain (namely self-control—Galatians 5:23).

James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

The Amplified Bible Classic edition adds a few more salient details: “Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith brings out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

The fourth symptom of hurry sickness which Borreson identifies is:

4.) We feel perpetually behind schedule. When we deal with hurry sickness, there never seems to be enough hours in a day to accomplish what we need to do. And no matter how much we accomplish, we always feel like we are playing catch-up. To God’s faithful saints who may feel as though they are stumbling or falling behind, the apostle Paul counsels: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9). Similarly, the prophet Isaiah assures those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

The fifth symptom of hurry sickness which Borreson identifies is:

5.) We interrupt or talk over people. Professor Schaubroeck suggests that our impatience is not “just limited to long lines and traffic jams, it spills over into our personal relationships as well. We may not intend to be rude, but we’ve been told [well I have anyway] that we have a habit of cutting people off mid-conversation. We frequently interrupt others when they speak, particularly if they speak slowly.”

This abrasive behavior is highlighted in Proverbs 18:13, “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” The Message Bible translates this passage as “Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.” Jesus’ half-brother James offers additional counsel in James 1:19.

James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

The Amplified Bible adds some clarifying details: “Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener), slow to speak [2 ears, 1 tongue] (a speaker of carefully chosen words) and slow to anger (patient, reflective, forgiving);”

The sixth symptom of hurry sickness which Borreson identifies is:

6.) We are obsessed with checking things off our to-do list. British environmental psychologist Lee Chambers explains that “we love the burst of satisfaction we get when we complete a task and get to cross it off our list. But that high doesn’t last long—we quickly move on to the next task. Moving at this fast pace doesn’t really make us more productive. Instead, it makes us more prone to errors. Hurry sickness shows up as a hyperawareness of what we need to do, constantly playing over and over in our heads.” This can be so over-consuming that we actually end up forgetting things or making mistakes because we are rushing and thinking about the next task while we do our present one, like Mary’s sister Martha.

Chambers warns those afflicted with hurry disease that “moving through the world in a perpetually rushed state can have profound negative effects our physical and mental wellbeing, our work, and our relationships, dangerously weakening our immune systems, interfering with sleep schedules and energy levels. The need to accomplish more and more in less time also diverts attention and bandwidth away from meaningful relationships in our lives.”

Richard Ritenbaugh in part one of the CGG Weekly, “Beating the Rat Race, Part One” asks us,

Will life in God’s Kingdom run at a frantic pace? It is hard to imagine God endorsing a society that is merely a “more righteous” version of this one. While it is clear that the Father and Son are constantly working (see John 5:17), They are not bouncing from pillar to post in a mad attempt to get everything done at once, and neither should we. Instead, He works out His plan over millennia, patiently guiding people and events to fulfill His will. From what we know of His character, He works steadily and surely, not frenetically.

Many luminaries in the Scriptures became enamored of or fixated upon dazzling, dramatic spiritual pyrotechnics, such as James and John, the Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17, Luke 9:54), suffering what David Grabbe has described as the Elijah Syndrome in his CGG Weekly series “The Elijah Syndrome,” appearing in January, 2020. We recall that Almighty God had to deemphasize the shock and awe of a great and strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire [typical for southern California], but a still small voice. Most of God’s creativity is slow, careful, and steady, not rushed and hurried. We, as His offspring, must emulate the slow, deliberate, steady reliability of the pace He has planned for us. The lengthy count to Pentecost from the wave sheaf offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread symbolizes the painstakingly slow but steady process of sanctification from our calling to our ultimate glorification as spirit beings.

Back in 1963, when I worked in the Green Giant Experimental Cannery up in Le Sueur, Minnesota, we were coding bags of frozen produce in the deep freeze. My supervisor, James Evans, looked at each of us sternly, stating emphatically, “The biggest rule of the coding procedure is to, “Go slowly and carefully—no shortcuts.” My late Grandma Martha Maas, when her grandchildren would run around excitedly and carelessly running into people and furniture, would exclaim loudly the German Sprichwort, “Eile mit Weile,” translated “haste makes waste” “or “one step at a time.” Literally it reads “Hurry with leisure.” If we did not respond, Grandma Maas would add “nach dem lachen kommt dass weinen,” or “after laughing comes crying” which absolutely turned out to be prophetic.

David’s son Solomon gave us many warnings against haste and rashness throughout the wisdom literature, namely the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The following constitute a representative sample:

Proverbs 14:29 He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.

Proverbs 18:13 He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.

Proverbs 19:2 Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, and he sins who hastens with his feet.

Proverbs 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.

Proverbs 25:8 Do not go hastily to court; for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor has put you to shame?

Proverbs 29:20 Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore, let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

In her insightful article, “How Taking Things Slowly Can Help You Become More Productive,” Olivia Ryan identifies five reasons why working more slowly paradoxically brings higher productivity and higher quality of output, including:

1. We are more focused when we don’t rush.

2. When we slow down, we improve the quality of our work.

3. Working slowly means we will not get tired quickly

4. Our brain does not like multitasking. Instead of completing two tasks at once, we are actually switching from one task to another, confusing our brain and making it less focused.

5. When we try to force ourselves to be more productive, we end up doing unnecessary things.

The commonsense solution is to slow ourselves way down, focusing on one task at a time. That, paradoxically, is how we will become more productive. When I feel rushed or pushed, I play in the recesses of my mind the old 1966 Simon & Garfunkel song “Feelin’ Groovy”: “Slow down, you move too fast, you got to make the morning last.”

The third major contributory cause of discontent is failure to live in the present, refusing to morbidly regret the past and fear the future. I believe that the lazy servant in the Parable of the Talents may have been paralyzed about his past performance and feared about consequences of failing in the future, throwing his opportunity to serve and reap the benefits of his service away. In his November 12, 2015 article “Living One Day at a Time,” Palitha Jayasooriya identifies four reasons why living one day at a time may ease the fears, anxieties, and stress caused by the frantic pace of today’s culture.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.”

“The first reason we should not worry about tomorrow is that we can’t control tomorrow. Proverbs 27:1 admonishes us not to boast about tomorrow, for we never know what a day may bring forth.” Because we do not hold the times and seasons in our hands, we cannot be assured of living until tomorrow. Proverbs 16:9 reminds us that a man may make diligent plans, but the Lord will ultimately direct his steps. Consequently, as God’s chosen saints, we need to commit today’s plans and all our future plans squarely in God’s hands, living one day at a time.

Secondly, we live one day at a time because there is enough trouble for today. Almighty God sets a precedent for us to live in the present or here and now by identifying himself in the present tense as “I AM.” Consequently, even though He is not bound by time, He is nevertheless the God of the present—a God of today. Sadly, too many of us are not living in the here and now either with morbid regret about the past or with fear and anxiety over the future.

For those living with regret over the past, the apostle Paul counsels in Philippians 3:13 ‘but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind—I press on," while for those stressed or anxious about their future, he counsels, “Do not be anxious about anything” but instead encourages us to trust in the power of praying to God (Philippians 4:6). Our Lord and Savior in the Model Prayer taught us to pray “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

The third reason we should live one day at a time is because today will never come back. Palitha Jayasooriya used an illustration of a bank crediting $86,400 to our bank account daily providing we use it up that day. If not, it is taken away. The process is renewed the next day. We might want to apply some resourcefulness to see it is all spent by nightfall. Well, similarly Almighty God blesses us with 86,400 seconds credited every day, which can never be reclaimed if not used! It is incumbent upon us to use this time resource wisely, spending quality time in God’s presence, quality time with our spouse and children, spending quality time with our spiritual siblings, exhorting and encouraging one another (Hebrews 3:13), refusing to allow opportunities to serve others slip through our fingers.

The fourth reason we should live one day at time is because God has promised to meet tomorrow’s needs if we are willing to give Him the first place in our lives. Matthew 6:33 instructs us, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” as well.

To wrap up this message, we have examined three causes for discontentment and three strategies to attain contentment.

1.) Greed and covetousness—the excessive desire for material things, often with a concomitant disregard for human relationships.

2.) The frantic pace of living—sometimes labeled by sociologists as hurry sickness-described in Daniel 12:4, thoroughly analyzed by Richard Ritenbaugh in his six-part CGG Weekly “Beating the Rat Race” (from May to July of 2010).

(3) Thirdly, we need to avoid regretting the past and habitually fearing the future, which results in failing to live in the present. The antidotes to these lethal contentment destroyers or the strategies for attaining contentment consist of:

1.) Cherishing relationships (especially with God and our spiritual siblings rather than things, spiritual rather than physical possessions.

2.) The antidote to the frantic pace of living, or hurry sickness, is to slow down, move less frantically, but instead more deliberately, practicing more slowly, and concentrating on fewer things, but improving the quality as we learn to focus rather than to flit around.

3.) The antidote to avoid regretting the past and fearing the future is to live in day tight compartments, living one day at a time, remembering that God Almighty describes Himself in the present tense, “I AM.”

DFM/jjm/drm