Coping With the Perplexing Perils of Prosperity

We all have experienced difficulties in many forms – financial struggles; health challenges; ongoing family conflicts; emergencies occurring at absolutely the worst possible times; working hard toward a desired goal only to see it elude our grasp and never come to fruition. But tough times build tough people, right? Out of necessity, we learn how to cope with adversity.  

But what about prosperity? How good are we at dealing with times when everything seems to be going well?

That might seem strange to ask. We love the good times. To borrow the musical stanza from the Ira Gershwin opera, “Porgy and Bess,” what’s not to like about “Summertime, when the livin’ is easy”? 

 

But in reality, the way we handle and process prosperity might be a greater and more accurate test of character than adversity. Because during hard times, unless we simply give up, we do whatever it takes to survive and make it past the crisis. We turn on our internal survival mechanism and shift into high gear. Prosperity, on the other hand, can trigger positive or negative responses.

 

There are countless stories of people who fought hard to reach the heights of their vocation – including entertainers, athletes, business executives, politicians, other public figures – only to suffer tragic tumbles from grace. They couldn’t handle success. Sadly, this has proved true as well for some who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

 

Reading a devotional by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great British preacher of the mid-to-late 1800s, brought this to mind. Referring to a statement by the apostle Paul, Spurgeon observed:

“There are many who know ‘how to be abased,’ who have not learned ‘how to abound.’ When they are set on the top of a pinnacle, their heads grow dizzy, and they are ready to fall. The Christian far more often disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity…. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining pot of prosperity…. When (Paul) had much, he knew how to use it. Abundant grace enabled him to bear abundant prosperity.”

 

Spurgeon was referring to Philippians 4:12, in which Paul told of having to “learn” how to deal times when he was prospering, both personally and in ministry. He wrote, “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.” Another translation expresses the apostle’s sentiments a bit differently: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

 

Throughout history people have wrestled with what we might term the “peril of prosperity.” Throughout the Old Testament we read about the Israelites, God’s chosen people, who cried out to the Lord in times of distress only to give Him little thought when things seemed to be going smoothly. Despite their religious rituals, they lived as “practical atheists,” until the next calamity reminded them of how desperately they needed to rely on God. They were abominably slow learners.

 

In a collection of proverbs in the Bible, written by someone known as “Agur son of Jakeh,” we read this cautionary request: “…give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).

 

Another verse in the same Old Testament book also notes how difficult it can be to deal appropriately with success and acclaim: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives” (Proverbs 27:21). Apparently, we learn to pass this test with time and experience.

 

During times of difficulty many of us are quick to turn to God, pleading for His intervention and resolution of our problems. But how many of us are equally eager to acknowledge and humbly deflect to Him any praise we receive when things “couldn’t be better” and all seems right in our world? Are we prepared to pass the “test” then?

The Problem With Taking Things for Granted

Quite a few years ago, before the shattering of the Iron Curtain and the disunifying of the Soviet Union, a friend in Atlanta hosted two Russian visitors. As hosts often do when people come to visit from out of town, my friend wanted to introduce his guests to some of the local sites. One of the destinations was a huge, indoor shopping mall.

 

“Who doesn’t like a trip to the mall?” he thought. Well, he found out. The Russians, accustomed to long food lines and sparse store shelves in their home country during Communist rule, went out of curiosity but quickly experienced sensory overload.

 

After about five minutes, the visitors rushed up to their hosts and insisted, “We must go now.” “But we’ve just gotten here,” my friend protested. “No,” one of the men repeated, “We must go. Too much – too much!” Trying to comprehend the material abundance everywhere they looked had overwhelmed them.

I was reminded of this while viewing a video produced by PragerU, a conservative non-profit devoted to teaching about the values that make America great. In the video, an immigrant from Cuba goes to Walmart  for the first time. In the grocery section, he’s amazed at both the array and size of the fresh produce. He picks up an onion about the size of a baseball in disbelief.

 

The newcomer to the U.S.A. next goes to the small appliance section, and then the toy department where he marvels at the many dolls on display. How would his daughter react if she saw this, he wonders. As the Cuban speaks on the video, you can see astonishment in his eyes. There was nothing like this in his homeland.

 

By comparison, how do lifelong Americans react in similar circumstances? We’re more likely to respond with a shrug, oblivious to the abundance all around us. I’ve actually felt a bit annoyed at times by having some many choices: Going into a paint store and discovering hundreds of different shades of…white, or blue, or green. Or walking down a grocery store aisle and encountering 55 varieties of baked beans – in sizes ranging from single-serving to “big enough to feed an army.” Why so many?

 

Remember the great toilet paper panic of 2020? (Who can forget, right?) In two blinks of an eye, the shelves went from stacks and stacks of TP to absolutely bare, causing some to consider subscribing again to the daily newspaper – just in case they ran out and needed an alternative. The crisis got so urgent that Mr. Whipple nearly came out of retirement to hawk his hoarded supplies of Charmin.

 

Such is the blessing – and the curse – of living in a prosperous nation. We can easily grow complacent, taking for granted our access to goods that people in many other countries can find only in their dreams. 

 

Maybe that’s why one of the virtues so rare in our society is contentment. Our desire for more seems limitless. Too much is never enough. Meanwhile, folks from other nations who visit – or just watch American programs on TV – find such abundance unfathomable.

 

I’m not suggesting we should go on a collective guilt trip, but maybe it’s time we started to gain some perspective. In a letter of exhortation to his young protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:6-8).

 

In this same passage we read, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Some have incorrectly quoted this as “the love of money is the root of all evil,” which it doesn’t say at all. But as Paul concludes his thought, “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

 

Perhaps the greatest problem with material abundance – excess – is that it deceives us into trusting our own self-sufficiency. Which in turn diminishes our sense of dependence upon God. Jesus spoke about this, chiding His hearers for worrying about their daily needs:  

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?... For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:25-33).

 

In one sense, it’s wonderful to know we live in a society where we typically don’t have to worry about whether we’ll find a loaf of bread to buy when we go to the store. But it might be good to occasionally see things as folks visiting from other less “blessed” lands. Wouldn’t it be something to go to a mall and suddenly decide, “Too much!” and return home, happily content with what we have and not feeling an urge to acquire more? 

The Problematic Promise of Prosperity

Who is not in favor of prosperity? No one I know. Singer Sophie Tucker once said, “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor, and rich is better.” Even if we can’t relate to the rich part, if given a choice none of us would opt for poor. At the very least, it’s nice to have a few dollars still in the bank when the next paycheck arrives.

In the business world, prosperity is of paramount importance. It’s reflected in the “bottom line,” measuring whether a company is profitable and how well it’s serving its shareholders. Regularly the media report on economic indicators, showing whether our country as a whole is prospering. Presidents are evaluated in part by the flows and ebbs of U.S. prosperity during their terms.

Prosperity is a concern even for non-profits, including churches. If contributions aren’t sufficient, not only to cover expenses but also to empower organizations in pursuit of their respective missions, potential beneficiaries of their services will suffer.

So prosperity’s always a good thing, right? Not necessarily. In fact, if we’re not careful, prosperity can distract us, even steer us down the wrong road.

Do you have a hold on your things --
or do they have a hold on you?

C.S. Lewis, a one-time atheist who became an ardent Christian apologist and author of beloved books on faith for both adults and children, came to that conclusion. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis observed: “Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth.”

The Bible describes followers of Jesus as “aliens and strangers” on earth (Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11), but prosperity has a way of making us feel right at home – and reluctant to leave. In addition, having all of our needs met as well as many of our wants can greatly diminish our sense of dependence on God.

Perhaps this is why the writer of the next to last chapter in Proverbs declared, “…give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).

In the 1960s, Americans were settling into the post-World War II economic boom, beginning an unprecedented era of material prosperity. About the same time, judicial edicts and legislation were being formulated that essentially declared our exalted nation no longer needed God. Seems the writer in Proverbs might have been right. Coincidence – or direct correlation?

Jesus did not oppose prosperity outright, but offered these words of warning: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Three verses later He declared, “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Does this mean we should err on the side of caution by taking vows of poverty or practicing lives of self-denial? This might be the Lord’s call for some, but for most of us it’s more a matter of being diligent to maintain a proper perspective about God, ourselves and our stuff. We find the guideline for this in the Old Testament book of Joshua, where God is providing instructions to the man who has just replaced Moses as the leader of the huge, wandering band of Israelites:

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

If we strive to keep God foremost in our lives, focusing on His truths and principles, we can succeed in avoiding the trap of letting our material possessions become idols and mini-gods in our daily lives. True prosperity, we’re told, is living according to God’s “owner’s manual” and becoming everything He intended for us to be. Whether that means hefty savings accounts and residences fit for Better Homes & Gardens and HGTV, or just having the satisfaction of paying the bills every month, what matters is being “prosperous and successful” from His point of view.

What is prosperity to you? As Jesus would say, it depends on where your treasure is.

Blessing . . . Or Curse?

Often during important political elections, key issues are raised and debated. Perhaps the most common is described simply by a phrase we’ve often seen: “It’s the economy, stupid!” The world can be tumbling around us, but as long as we’re doing well financially, all’s well. Conversely, many things may be going right in society, but if we’re confronting inflation, high interest rates, or other fiscal maladies, panic typically ensues.

Sometimes too much of a good thing is...too much of a good thing.

For those who would propose the United States is a “Christian nation,” one of the evidences they submit is our history of economic prosperity. We still have the poor among us, but even many of our disenfranchised have earthly possessions that the “wealthiest” people in some Third World nations would envy. So we conclude, solely on the basis of material goods, that “the Lord has really blessed us.”

I sometimes wonder about that. I’m like everyone else – I’d like to have a little extra at the end of each paycheck, but prosperity can be as much a curse as it is a blessing.

In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Screwtape Letters, in which a demon offers advice to an apprentice, Lewis makes this observation: “Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth.”

That’s a lot to chew on, but I think the late Mr. Lewis was onto something.  I’ve often heard it said that some of the happiest people in the world are poor. That’s not an endorsement of poverty, nor a justification for anyone who believes they don’t have a responsibility to help the less fortunate in some way. But think about it – poor people aren’t worried about what the stock market does today. They don’t have to install costly security systems on their homes. Many don’t have to consider how buying a new car will affect their insurance premiums. They don’t need safes to protect their valuables.

They may have other worries, but they don’t have to worry about preserving their “stuff.”

And as C.S. Lewis suggests, if our prosperity gives us the “sense of being really at home in earth,” we can easily forget about the eternal home Jesus promised to all who have received him. The apostle John expressed it clearly when he wrote, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Jesus stated it another way: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13).

I believe one primary purpose for the trials we experience in life, financial setbacks and hardships among them, is to serve as a reminder that no matter how we enjoy it, the world is not our home. The apostle Paul didn’t mince words when he wrote, “…many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:18-20).

If someone were to judge you according to your attitude toward your possessions, the level of prosperity you currently experience, would they conclude your citizenship is in heaven – or in this world? That’s a question we might not like, but it’s worth an honest answer.

Pitfalls of Prosperity

I’m all for prosperity. Somebody once said, “I’ve tried living with money, and I’ve tried living without money. I like living with money better.” I concur with that perspective, although I’ve never pursued wealth and have never achieved it. And I’ve never been as “dead broke” as Hillary Clinton claims to have been.

But prosperity is a peculiar thing. While it’s certainly preferable to the alternative, there rarely seems a moment when we conclude, “That’s good. It’s all I need.” Many people ascribe to the mantra, “Too much is never enough.” Take the mega-million dollar athletes and entertainers, for example. Despite having achieved riches beyond anything people in many of the world’s societies could even dream of, we hear grumbling and complaining as if they’re paupers, anxious to renegotiate compensation as soon as possible.

But there’s another perplexing aspect of prosperity. It’s the tendency to forget our roots, to lose sight of what got us from where we were to where we are now. This is also true spiritually. In times of need, including financial distress, we cry out to God for His help and intervention. But once the crisis has passed, and prosperity has returned, it’s easy to forget the source of our deliverance.

This was repeatedly the case for ancient Israel. God bailed them out time after time, only to see their gratitude and devotion wane as their prosperity surged. In Deuteronomy 8:11-14 the Israelites were warned, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and you silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God….”

Curiously, this almost seems like a description of the United States today. Founded on Judeo-Christian principles and values, our post-World War II nation experienced an unprecedented explosion of prosperity. Home ownership, once only a faint hope for the great majority, suddenly became reality. Cars were no longer only for the privileged, and garages were added to houses. Consumerism and materialism began taking hold, and despite economic ups and downs, their grip remains strong and unrelenting.

As a consequence, we as a society seem to have decided we don’t need God. It’s become easy to deny He exists. In a twist from “I think, therefore I am,” we don’t think of God, therefore He isn’t. Supposedly there are no atheists in foxholes, but out of the foxhole we believe – or disbelieve – whatever we want. And if we feel self-sufficient, why bother with God?

Perhaps that’s one reason the apostle Paul wrote, “The love of money is a root of many kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). It not only contributes to sins such as greed, coveting, overindulgence, pride and hoarding, but also takes our focus from God, whom the Bible tells us is the giver of every good thing, shifting it onto ourselves and our stuff.

This is hardly new to human behavior. As the writer of Proverbs 30:8-9 wisely pleaded, “… Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.…”

So despite hand-wringing over economic uncertainties, we in the United States remain perhaps the most prosperous society in history. While the poor in some countries live in squalor – African huts, Brazilian favelas and Hispanic barrios, all homes consisting of scrap materials – many of our poor possess cars, wide-screen TVs and cell phones. Poverty and prosperity are relative.

The upshot of all of this is we, like the people of ancient Israel, have collectively decided, “Who needs God?”, replicating the pattern the Israelites modeled: “all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

As we scan the landscape of society, observing the craziness that’s transpiring these days, this doesn’t necessarily seem like a good thing. Maybe prosperity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Startling Cases in Contrast

Recently South Korea – aka the Republic of Korea – was awarded the XXIII Olympics Winter Games in 2018. For many of us, that’s no big deal. But have you any idea how miraculous that achievement is?

The South Koreans prevailed over proposals from Germany and France, no small feat for a land that in the 1950s wallowed in abject poverty, as poor as any Third World nation today. In years when “made in Japan” was a joke, “made in South Korea” was unthinkable.

When North and South Korea were divided by the 38^th Parallel, the atheistic, Communist neighbor to the north actually had an advantage in natural resources. For South Korea, which became sanctuary for about seven million Christian refugees from North Korea, farming was its sole industry. Natural resources were scarce, as were formal education and modern technology. There was no semblance of entrepreneurship.

What changed for the now prospering land of nearly 49 million people, ranked among the world’s top 15 economic powers?

Among many factors, one crucial decision stands out: the resolve to pray. In the ‘50s, then-President Syngman Rhee enlisted Christian leaders to pray fervently for South Korea. Many thousands of citizens rose in pre-dawn hours to call out to God, seeking His mercy and blessing.

To this day, South Koreans visitors are amazed to learn of multitudes that awaken long before sunrise, convening in large sports arenas, churches and other locations, shouting and crying out to the Lord.

South Korea has its flaws. Prosperity has brought corruption; not a surprise. (“The love of money is a root of many kinds of evil” – 1 Timothy 6:10.) Other common drawbacks of materialism have followed. But the nation now has an estimated 50,000 Protestant congregations, including the largest church in the world with more than 1 million members.

Contrast what has happened in South Korea to North Korea, labeled by some “a repressive nightmare,” its economy in disarray. Compare South Korea also with the United States, where a vocal minority actively condemns mottos such as “In God We Trust” on currency and license tags, and “one nation under God” is assailed as violating separation of church and state.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God declares, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Later God warns of dire consequences, “if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you…” (2 Chronicles 7:19-20).

South Korea has reaped benefits of becoming humble and praying and seeking God. Our own nation, I fear, is well on its way to experiencing the downside of turning away and forsaking Him.