“We've Come A Long Way, Baby”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesGrowing up on a farm back in the 1940’s, this writer vividly remembers a time when folks knew how to trim a wick on a kerosene lamp so it wouldn’t smoke up the chimney. I also remember when electricity replaced the kerosene lamp, and when automatic washers replaced scrub boards, and dryers replaced clothes lines.
Because of affluence, we can now afford things that 90% of the world cannot. Today, we couldn’t survive without our microwaves, including conveniences that have supposedly created more “free time” (but we’re working longer hours than ever before!). Additionally, with all these “labor saving” devices, comes an entertainment craze surpassing that of Roman amphitheater days (see article).
There’s all kinds of entertainment at our finger tips — TV shows, movies, and video games so real that fired bullets automatically cause you to duck! Unfortunately, accessibility to recreation and entertainment has also exposed us to everything produced for worldly entertainment.
Prosperity has made available things that otherwise would not be a temptation. We have begun to rub elbows with the life style of the rich, and that intimate association puts us in circumstances where socially acceptable sins like promiscuity, drinking and drugs no longer offend us.
The inclination to succumb to temptation is now greater, because we can afford what we once could not! Availability can (and does) weaken our spiritual defenses. One Christian brother made an excellent observation as to why David and Bathsheba sinned — they were simply “available” for each other.
In today’s technological society, we can travel the world with great ease. And with the advent of the cell phone, laptop computer, and other electronic devices, we have become so mobile that we hardly have time for the work of the Lord and His church.
Internet access has brought into our homes volumes of information and contact with millions of people throughout the world. We should be smarter, more knowledgeable and more productive than any generation before us – but are we? Having Internet access to good information, has also created greater availability for the evil of pornography, and other forms of perversion.
In spite of the good that affluence has brought us, it has not come without a great price. The more we have, and the more we become slaves to taking care of our physical “things,” the more they distract us from eternal things, because we begin to equate “living” with “things” instead of a relationship with God (Luke 12:15; cf. 1 Timothy 6:1-8,17-19).
Brethren, if we are not extremely careful, we will exchange the eternal God for the god of pleasure. And, if we are unwilling to see what is taking place, worldliness will consume us (2 Timothy 4:10; cf. Matthew 13:22).
It will no longer be that “We’ve come a long way, baby,” it will be, “We’ve gone a long way back” (cf. Jeremiah 7:21-24; Jeremiah 15:1-7).