Possessed by the Consumer God

Kristin Thiele ponders what we can do to avoid being consumed by consumerism.

I am guilty of indulging in “retail therapy”— that great therapy session that sends you out to the shopping centre to purchase something—anything. The very act of purchasing sends happy endorphins rushing through the body. You would think this is only a female trait but it is not. It’s no secret we live in a consumer society. We consume. Every part of our lives is in some part about consuming even more.

The basic assumption of consumerism is that if we can have everything we want, we will be happy. Unfortunately for us, the multi-billion dollar industry of advertising is constantly telling us we never have enough. We become defined in terms of the clothes we wear, the vehicle we drive and the music on our iPod.

In short, we are what we consume. This drives people to work longer hours and feel dissatisfied with the stuff they already possess. In the end, we are possessed by our possessions.

It’s not the big purchases that possess us; it’s the everyday extras. From roaming through a $2 shop to flipping the pages of catalogues, we are constantly looking for the next thing to buy. We ask ourselves what purchases we can make that would help define us to the world.

Growing up, my sister and I had Barbie dolls. The dolls were similar in every aspect except their accessories. My Barbie had a horse. My sister’s had a car. My doll was dressed in jeans and jackets, while hers was dressed in skirts and boots. Sometimes I think people try to do this with their lives. They accessorise to distinguish themselves from the pack—as if they were not unique enough by themselves to stand out.

In Matthew 10:30, Jesus talks about knowing every hair on your head. In Jeremiah 1:5, we find God knew us before we were even born—before we had any accessories. We don’t need anything to distinguish us from the pack, because we are already uniquely special. Just as we are not made special by our things, we are not hidden by them either. God has this amazing ability to see through the stuff. Kind of like Superman with his X-ray vision, except God’s vision is much more powerful—He can see what’s in our hearts (see 1 Samuel 16:7).

Our consumer society is not healthy. Not only does it exploit, such as those working in sweatshops, and burn holes in our pockets, it also takes our eyes away from Jesus. Like the snake held up in the wilderness (see Numbers 21:6-9), Jesus is held up before us. We must look to Him to be healed.

But pulling our eyes away from the TV, catalogues or eBay is hard. Living in the world is easy; living for Christ can be harder.

But fear not! The Bible has set out steps to help show us the way to avoid being caught in the consumerism clutch again.

The first step is to start putting your body and mind into a new space. Consumer society wants two things from us—money and time. Start by realising these are two things that belong to God first.

While the biblical concept of tithing can seem archaic, it is a tangible way of reminding ourselves that money does not rule our lives. By giving 10 per cent of our earnings in tithe, we are saying that money is not our god. We can give it away. It might hurt at first but it is only the pain of moving out of the retailers’ clutches.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we believe that Saturday/Sabbath was set aside for time to commune with God, our community and nature. This is true. But use this time to do things that are not for yourself. Just like with money, this is an exercise in giving. We give our time to someone else to remind us that our life is not meant to be self-centred.

Living in a consumer society, it is always tempting to desire one more thing or have just one more retail therapy session.

Yet we have already been given everything. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whomever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV). We have been given it all.

Do we allow the consumer god to continue to hold us? Or do we leave its clutch for the arms of a Saviour?