The Hedonic Treadmill—(Affluenza)
What should your attitude be toward wealth? Is wealth evil? Not in itself, however, there’s something about wealth and the pursuit of material things that gives stiff competition in your devotion to God. Wealth and the things it can buy is a stepping stone to very dangerous substitutes to a first love for God. It’s why Jesus once said in Matthew 19:24, “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
When do you cross the line into worldliness and its cousin hedonism? Or, at what point can you say, “I’m content with what I have?” Hedonism is a lifestyle pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods so that it becomes the primary or most important goal of your life. Another term for the American version of hedonism is Affluenza. It sounds like a disease doesn’t it? In many ways it is! Affluenza elevates the pursuit of creature comfort to the level of your greatest quest.
As I continue the series, “Doing Life God’s Way in a Secular Culture,” I want to talk about “The Hedonic Treadmill” and by that, I’m talking about the personal pursuit of possessions, wealth and pleasure as your primary moral value.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
I’m sure no one would ever admit to being a hedonist. It seems like some kind of ancient Roman character flaw. But generally, the proof of hedonism is there for many in our culture. For instance, you’re likely on the hedonic treadmill if you’re…
…spending more money than you make on a regular basis …highest ideal is the pursuit of possessions …inability to find contentment with what you have drives you into debt …rarely if ever defer purchase or pleasure (you want it and
you want it now!)
This way of life shapes your moral values, which in turn spurs on your daily decision making. It means regardless of how many raises you get, you’ll keep spending more and probably more than you make—and soon you’re on this treadmill of needing everything you want and needing it now.
PINK FLOYD’S WAY OF THINKING
In the early 70’s Pink Floyd’s hit “Money” captured the cultural pulse of many Americans:
“Money, get away. Get a good job with good pay and you're okay. Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash. New car, caviar, four-star daydream. Think I'll buy me a football team. Money, get back. I'm all right Jack. Keep your hands off of my stack. Money, it's a hit. Don't give me that do goody good bull…I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set. And I think I need a Lear jet. Money, it's a crime. Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.”
See the tension in those lyrics? “Money, I need a good job and good pay and I’ll be okay.” Nothing wrong with that right? But soon, it’s “Money is a gas!... Grab that cash… new car, caviar… keep your hands off my stash…Money is a hit… first class traveling… don't take a slice of my pie.”
Personal finance writer Liz Weston writes that the median household income in the U.S. is around $52,000. That income is in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. And yet, the latest data shows that collectively, we think those who make twice as much as we do as being financially rich. So, you could be in the top 1% of earners in the world, making $52,000 a year and yet think that you won’t be wealthy until you make $100,000 a year. Oh, that also means that if you make $5 million a year your tendency is to say, “I won’t be wealthy until I make $10 million.”
“I have money, but I need much more. It’s my money. You can’t have it. Enough is never enough. I need at least twice what I have.”
That’s the hedonistic treadmill.
DOING WEALTH GOD’S WAY
The Book of Proverbs is God’s manual to guide us in these matters. King Solomon, who wrote most of the book of Proverbs, and who, by the way, was a very rich man, had a lot to say about affluenza. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 3:9-10…
“Honor the LORD with your wealth, and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”
Why honor God with your wealth? If you manage your money and resources with the goal to please God, you won’t put wealth and material things above God and you likely won’t fall into the money trap of affluenza. God desires first place in your life and he wants to protect you from yourself. God knows something about you and me:
He knows that you can buy a house, but you can’t buy a home. You can buy a bed, but you can’t buy sleep. You can buy a clock, but you can’t buy time. You can buy a book, but you can’t buy knowledge. You can buy medicine, but you can’t buy health. You can buy sex, but you can’t buy love. You can buy quiet, but you can’t buy peace. You can buy people, but you can’t buy friends. You can buy entertainment, but you can’t buy joy, and on and on.
DEBT—UGH!
Buying more beyond your basic needs is not going to sustain your happiness. Ask anyone who grew up in a healthy, loving home but without much money or material things and they’ll say, “I never knew we were poor.” Money just won’t hold you together in the long run—especially if you accrue debt in pursuit of happiness!
Let’s say that you wake up tomorrow morning and look back over the last 12 months and discover that you spent 5,000 dollars more than your yearly income. Let’s say you decide to get out of debt. You not only have to cut $5,000 out of your spending, but you have to cut another $5,000 to make up for what you lost last year. And then add another $1,000 to pay for the interest on your debt. And now you’re $6000 behind. For you to get even next year, you have to cut $11,000 out of your already tight budget. What a trap! In addition, there’s no way you can honor God with your wealth if you’re constantly living out a position of debt. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”
Excessive debt is a clear-cut example of the (rich) banks and credit industry ruling over your life. If borrowing becomes a way of life, you’ll become a slave to the lender. And if you’re a slave to lenders, you can’t honor God with your wealth because you’ll need to honor the lender.
THE SOLUTION—GOD’S WISDOM
God inspired Solomon to write Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the LORD with your wealth.” But it’s the last part of the verse that gets specific: “…with the best part of everything you produce.” What does that mean? As you produce an income from your labors, the management of your wealth is meant to honor God by giving to him the best part (first part) of what make as a salary. When God was laying out his spiritual laws thousands of years ago, he said in Exodus 23:19, “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.”
If you’re a perpetual debtor, is it possible that you’re honoring a desire for more stuff, more than your desire to honor God? Is it likely that God is not receiving the first of your income because the first fruit of your salary is what is demanded by your desire for material things or it goes to lenders or both? If so, God gets the leftovers—if any is left over. It’s not just debt that competes with God for honor when affluenza hits. You’ll be tempted to give the first fruits of your income to leisure, recreation, and material things. Of that's the case, God is fundamentally replaced as your first love only to be replaced with affluence and comfort.
GET OFF THE TREADMILL
In order to step off the treadmill of affluenza, debt, and American hedonism, there needs to be a spiritual and practical shift in your life. Every time you give God central place in your life and prove it by giving God the first fruit of your income, you agree that he is King as well as owner. You see yourself as a manager of his wealth.
In Acts 17:28, Paul says, “...for in him we live and move and exist.” Christ-followers understand that God has a claim on their lives. Colossians 1:16 says Jesus created you. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says Jesus bought you with His precious blood. Ephesians 1:20-23 says God anointed Jesus as Lord, Leader, and King. As such, your life, your pursuits, your material affluence, and everything you have is His. If you fail to acknowledge and act upon God’s total ownership of everything you are, everything you have, and everything you will be, you rob God of his Kingly place in your life and yourself of his blessing.
NEXT STEP 1. Take an honest look at your life. Are you on the “more is better” treadmill to the exclusion of God having center place in your life? If so, get off the treadmill and honor God with your money and material pursuits.
2. Are you in debt? Pay it down and stop being a slave to lenders.
3. Implement intentional simplicity into your life. Take a look at your life and see if you can simplify it. Save up until you have enough to buy what you need or want.
