How often do we feel or hear someone say that something's not fair? Well, I want to add my voice too.
It's not fair:
- That I have clean water to drink
- That I have enough food to eat
- That I have a roof over my head and warmth when it's cold
- That I have felt safe within a reasonable rule of law
- That I have good health
- That I received a good education
- That I have a job which is fulfilling and interesting
- That my income puts me in the richest one or two percent in the world*
- That I have lived nearly 6 decades without experiencing war at first hand.
Nor is it fair that Jesus found me and took me under His saving wing**.
It's not fair!
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* See www.givingwhatwecan.org/ or www.globalrichlist.com to see where your income lies in the world rankings
** This last point, alone in the above list, is available to everyone. However, it's totally undeserved, and so is also not fair.
The 'baby boomer' generation, born in the West in the years after the 2nd World War and now in their 50s and 60s, has been a remarkable generation!
They:
- "Never had it so good" in the 1950s and 1960s, due to the dramatic rise in the standard of living
- Liked the sound of 'free sex' in the 1960s and went for it big time with the aid of easy contraception
- Ditched marriage in favour of easy divorce
- Invented credit cards and spent, spent, spent
- Stopped worshipping God and started worshipping themselves, and money
- Turned their backs on community, and even family, in favour of individualism
- Came to think that materialism was normal and became consumers par excellence, wanting more, more, more
- Forgot that loans have to be repaid, with interest
- Took rising standards of living for granted, an assumed infinite progression
- Became besotted with 'progress', assuming that it is normal and always good
- Turned houses into financial assets rather than places to live, and so shut their children out of home ownership
- Forgot responsibility, but demanded their rights
- Discarded troublesome honesty and adopted 'spin' and deceit
- Enjoyed unprecedented decades of peace*, but exported war to other parts of the world through the arms trade and 'direct intervention'
- Thought slavery had been abolished long ago, but kept the majority of the world in poverty in order to fund their lifestyles
- And exploited & consumed far more of the world's resources than any other generation in history, leaving an unbearable debt burden and a denuded and polluted world for their children and children's children.
This special generation! This self-indulgent and avaricious generation.
* I am very well aware that there has been war in various parts of the world throughout all these years, including many directly involving the US and European armed forces. Yet it remains a fact that most of this generation has - very unusually - not experienced war at first hand.
Returning to the theme of wellbeing (see Seeking well-being rather than salvation), I have been very struck by a paper by the 'New Economics Forum' (NEF) who reviewed the evidence for what activities enhance wellbeing and also reduces the risk of mental health problems. The NEF is an independent think tank whose tag line is 'economics as if people and the planet mattered'.
As a counsellor I am impressed with the findings they present in this paper. Here is the simple summary, in the report's own words:
Five ways to well-being*
A review of the most up-to-date evidence suggests that building the following five actions into our day-to-day lives is important for well-being:
Connect...
With the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.
Be active...
Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.
Take notice...
Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.
Keep learning...
Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.
Give...
Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.
But I am most struck as a Christian with how closely these mesh with values at the heart of the Christian gospel. Jesus told us 2000 years ago that:
- relationships matter greatly - with our Father in heaven, with our families, our neighbours and community; we are even to love our enemies
- our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to take care of them
- we should notice with awe, praise and thanks the remarkable works of our amazing Creator
- there is always more to know of God our Father, and that we are to strive to become mature, the people that God intended and more clearly reflecting the image of Christ
- and that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Still, I suppose it's not a surprise that God knows what is good for us.
* The full Report is available from the New Economics Forum website.
Jesus said that the second most important command was to "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22 v39, quoting Leviticus 19 v18), as if loving ourselves was the most natural thing in the world and this clearly explained how we should go about loving our neighbours.
It's true that most people tend to eat when they are hungry, warm themselves when they are cold, seek security when they are fearful, etc. But is Jesus simply saying that loving our neighbour involves feeding or warming others when they're are hungry or cold, and offering security when they are afraid?
Moreover, working as a counsellor, I sometimes talk with people who self-harm, have eating disorders, or feel suicidal - people who appear not to know how to love themselves, let alone love others. Even those who don't struggle with such problems frequently behave in ways that are likely to leave them wounded - through the misuse of sex, alcohol or just leading an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, when it comes down to it, all of us behave in ways that are selfish or self-damaging in various ways. And this isn't loving ourselves - it's love gone wrong, turned into greed or self-worship.
So do any of us really know what it is to love ourselves?
There is more to Jesus' command than simple advice to 'do as you would be done by', which, in the minds of many people is just seen as 'be nice to others in the hope that they'll be nice back', or is sometimes expressed as 'what goes around, comes around'.
Perhaps we need to understand more about love? What did Jesus mean when he said we should love both our neighbours and ourselves?
I drew a distinction between worldly and Godly views of love in one of my earliest posts - Whatever you do, don't love me - but we should look at that wonderful description of Christian love in the Bible to get a clear insight into what it is to love someone.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13 v4-7)
This is proactive love - actively seeking ways to do good to our neighbour; it is much more than merely being nice to people.
Perhaps it is also then an instruction into how we should go about loving ourselves as well as our neighbour? Are we patient and kind towards ourselves? Do we let go of our anger and our grudges - even those we hold towards ourselves? Are we honest with ourselves? Do we forgive ourselves, protect ourselves? Do we trust ourselves - or do we try to deceive ourselves? Do we keep hoping and persevering, trusting that God will bring his good work in us to completion?
If we actively love ourselves in this way - knowing God first loved us - we may also become better at loving our neighbour.
There is a fashion for talking about 'well-being' these days. Counselling services are becoming 'Well-being services' and the UK Government's Office for National Statistics has just completed its first national well-being survey (see: ONS Well-being Survey).
I'm all in favour of considering well-being rather than economics for a change; money and wealth are very bad proxies for quality of life. And thinking about well-being rather than all the plethora of negative mental health diagnoses makes for welcome relief - and improves my well-being immediately!
Working as a counsellor, often with young people, a common line of discussion is what a client's parents may think of their actions or decisions. One type of common reply goes along the lines of "Oh, they just want me to be happy".
But there is a problem here.
The assumption is that happiness is good. This sounds reasonable enough, but it's odd that Jesus never 'sold' Christianity on the basis that it would make you happy. He talked about Christians being blessed and it bringing peace, forgiveness, contentment and joy. He also said that following him led to living life in all its fullness (John 10 v10). But he didn't really mention happiness! In fact there are remarkably few references to happiness in the Bible.
(Don't confuse being blessed or being joyful with being happy! Christian joy is something much deeper and more reliable than mere happiness, which comes and goes as the wind blows.)
However, let's not take the reverse to be true - the Bible is not saying that being a Christian will make you unhappy, despite promising that it was likely to bring difficulty and persecution. Rather the promise seems to be that following Christ will bring purpose, direction, servant-heartedness, and contentment whatever the prevailing circumstances, whether life is easy or difficult.
So our Government's new interest in well-being is a small step in a positive direction - that is, away from measuring everything by money. But let's not be taken in by thinking that well-being or happiness are what really matters, or that they offer life in all its fullness!
Don't settle for well-being when you could have salvation...
The world's gone crazy. There are horrible things going on and the natural inclination of most people is to try to escape from the horror. We do this by shutting our eyes, living life in a little bubble or pretending that the problems are nothing to do with us.
I sometimes get to the point of thinking "Stop the world, I want to get off".
But, Lord, that wasn't what you did. You said, "Let the world keep turning for a while longer, I want to get on!"
You got involved with sin, you mixed with the down-and-outs, the prostitutes and sinners, as well as with the arrogant and greedy leaders - you challenged selfishness, talked of service, you showed the way through your actions and ultimately through your death on a cross. But you were not overcome and none of this conquered you.
Lord, open our eyes and take us out of our comfort zone. Have mercy on us and fill us with your love. Enable us to shine with your light in the midst of the darkness.
There's currently a significant disagreement between governments and political parties about the alternative policies of austerity and growth - and there is a great deal of discussion about this in the media.
Those who say we should maintain austerity measures make a sensible point when they say that the cure for a big debt is not more debt; we must learn to live within our means. But those who promote growth also make sensible points in saying that there is no point having large sections of the population unemployed, which is both costly and unproductive; we should be encouraging growth so that people are earning, paying taxes and in that way we can all pay down our debts.
I've already written about debt (see: We're still in denial about debt). But I think both the austerity and growth arguments are fundamentally wrong; they are both built on a delusion.
Both models assume that the measure of progress is financial, that the way forward involves getting back to 'business as usual' and depends on reinvigorating the consumerist and materialist society with which we are all familiar. The disagreement is merely over the best way to get to that goal. But it's the wrong goal!
If a system is flawed, don't try to reinstate it! And it is flawed. It is built on the belief that we just need to better control the financial systems. But the Bible - and painful experience - have shown us that when you worship money and greed, they inevitably control you! Money is a very harsh god indeed:
- it promises security, but actually robs people of security
- it sets one person against another, causing scheming and deceit
- it will never bring peace, fulfilment, happiness or contentment
- it breaks up families and communities in the pursuit of the individual
- and it keeps the majority of the population in poverty, exploited for the benefit of the few.
We definitely don't need to get back to 'business as usual'. Moreover, it isn't a matter of making minor changes to the existing system - the very nature of the beast is built on a devilish lie; it is inherently unstable and definitely unsustainable.
But we have an unusual opportunity at present. When all is apparently going along 'like normal', then no one will contemplate or countenance changing course. But at present, it is abundantly clear that all is not well and a change can be considered, in fact it has to be considered!
I recognise that we cannot create a 'Christian society' simply through political change (see my blog on 'Why do we expect non-Christians to behave as if they were'). For that, a change of heart is required which is only possible through submission to Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. However, that is not to say that Christians cannot be 'salt and light', working for political change which is in line with the Bible.
We need policies that:
- put families and community at the heart of policy; this has implications for tax, housing and working time policies ...
- encourage local initiatives and local trading; this has implications for planning, food and transport policies ...
- respect careers such as teaching and nursing over roles such as investment banking, and 'being a celebrity'; this will be reflected in the values seen across government policy and where time, resources and respect are allocated ...
- create work, leisure and housing opportunities for the young; this has implications for apprenticeships, affordable housing, recreation and retirement policies ...
- work to diminish pay differentials, say to 10 : 1 (i.e. top earners are paid no more than 10 times the lowest paid workers); this has implications for tax policy, pay and grading, and regulation of top salaries ...
- look to long-term security and stability, not short-term financial or political gain; this has implications for cooperation between political parties on matters which require long-term planning ...
- value good stewardship of natural resources rather than reckless exploitation of the world's dwindling reserves; this has implications for energy policy and would discourage the 'throw-away' society.
We would end up materially poorer, but how much infinitely richer!
