Curses of Living in an Abundant Society

Aaaahhhh, America the Beautiful -- and the WEALTHY! Man, we're RICH here in America! We moan and groan about the prices of gasoline and groceries... but seriously?!? The poor among us live better than the kings of the middle ages.

I grew up "poor" as one of five children of a single mother whose ex-husband didn't pay child support. However, there was always a roof over my head and three meals a day and enough clothes that fit and ... well, let's just say, that although we were always well within the government's poverty guidelines, we still had more than just our needs met. I even owned a Cabbage Patch doll at the height of their popularity!

As a mom myself, with enough money but lots of people to spend it on, I'm often having to determine how to make our budget stretch. What's a need and what's a want? How can I teach my children to make those decisions wisely?

Living in an Abundant Society is a blessing... right?!

Well, yes!

I thank God every day in prayer for the wonderful blessings of our modern day luxuries and conveniences and never being in want.

But then again... no.

Sometimes, I get all philosophical -- it often happens when I'm getting all political -- and I realize that there are inherent Curses of Living in an Abundant Society, or COLAS since I love acronyms and I'm not too fond of carbonation. Tee hee.

So, see if you recognize this list:


Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy - ingratitude
Pride

It's the Seven Deadly Sins!

Let's play a little game and see if we can find the connections between these vices and abundance. 

Lust: hmmmm, this may be a tough one to start with. How could being wealthy encourage lust? Well, in these modern days, we can work less and make more money than in our grandparents' era. Maybe since we have so much free time and expendable income, we can "afford" to spend time and money on pornography & prostitution... yes, those have been around since the beginning of time, but they are definitely getting more popular and accepted.

Gluttony: since getting a meal is as easy as driving up to the fast-food window and paying a minimal amount for a high-calorie, low-nutrition meal, we end up obese. This is embarrassing, but have you heard the statistic that two-thirds of American adults are more than 50 lbs overweight?! Ay-yi-yi.

Greed: maybe you've heard the younger generations being called things like The Me Generation and how they feel entitled to anything and everything. I'd consider that greed.

Sloth: meeting our survival needs so easily means that we can focus our efforts on other things -- or on nothing. Amidst our abundance, we can be lazy but we won't starve and we'll still have shelter even if we're idle. There is no built-in negative consequence to discourage laziness. Sadly, I think this lends to depression because people caught in the snare of slothfulness never feel the satisfaction of a job well-done. Plus, there's the old adage: "Idle hands are a devil's workshop." So, crime continues even amidst abundance. Finally, remember the Wall-E movie, where the humans were on a spaceship and didn't have to work at all and so their muscles hadn't developed and it was even hard for them to walk. Work builds muscle -- and not just physical muscle...

Wrath: this is another tough one. Why would having plenty lead to anger?! I'll take comments here. Might be connected to greed and envy...

Envy: I tie this one in with greed. Even though nearly everyone in America is richer than nearly everyone in third-world countries, the poor among us still envy those richer than them. I think it is a form of ingratitude, which leads to entitlement and overall dissatisfaction (which could lead to wrath!)

Pride: I'd venture to guess that some people don't even know Pride is a sin, let alone a deadly one. Since pride means we think we're better than others, we certainly aren't loving them as we love ourselves so we're breaking the golden rule. Pride has also been defined as enmity toward God -- whoa! How can abundance lead to pride?! I think the connection is as clear as a diamond!

Well, I'm going to finish this looooonnngg blog post now. Our family has money for our needs, wants, plus some to help others. What a blessing. My hope is that we'll enjoy the comforts our relative wealth brings and not suffer from too many of the sins it can bring along with it.