Conspiracy of Freedom

Video Commentary

‘Enough’ is a forgotten word in today’s society. It’s a structural thing – growth is good, and lack of growth is recession. We don’t ever stop to ask what is growing and why, and who benefits, and if we actually need it. It just happens.

It’s also a personal thing. We’ve come to expect to have better lives than our parent’s generation. We look forward to a bigger house, to rising pay levels. Our houses slowly fill up with possessions, and then the self storage box fills up too.

In nature, constant growth is usually a sign of something wrong. Normal, healthy organisms grow to the right size and then stop. Things that don’t are bloated, or cancerous, and some would argue that our economy is in a similarly unhealthy situation. Our affluent lifestyles require high levels of debt, produce too much pollution, and use an unfair share of the earth’s resources.

The biggest tragedy is that this lifestyle doesn’t even make us happy. As the quote from Richard Layard’s book ‘Happiness’ suggests, we’re no happier than we were in the 1970s, when we had half as much as we have now.

Bible Study

The video quotes Psalm 4 in The MESSAGE paraphrase:
Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.”More, more.” I have God’s more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees. At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep, for you, God, have put my life back together.
Psalm 4: 6-8

Other translations show us a different perspective on the same questions. Rather than the ‘more’ idea, the NLT observes that ‘Many people say, “Who will show us better times?”’, a consumerist question if ever there was one! What do I need next, what’s missing? What will complete my happiness?

The answer of course, is in God. He is the source of our joy, the only place where true satisfaction is found. And in that satisfaction is the end of all that chasing, the freedom to be content. As verse 8 puts it, in the NLT again, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.”

Amos 5:11-15 is an interesting indictment of a society that has prioritized its own comfort over God’s purposes. Read both passages through, and discuss these questions:
What have the people here done? What have they not done? What does Amos suggest they do instead?

Jesus tells a similar story in Luke 12:13-21. Read that story together, and consider the same set of questions.
Think about Jesus’ challenge here. What does it mean to be ‘rich towards God’?

Get Practical

Consider these real life examples of what to do next…