As Lindsay and I prepare to move into a house, I am getting swooned by advertisements from Home Depot and Bed, Bath and Beyond telling me to take 10% off if I spend more than I would anyway. From those ads, a voice tells me, “Hey, you deserve it.” Then Phil Vischer’s, the creator of VeggieTales, comments, struck me:
“That little whisper—‘you deserve it’—comes I believe from the worst part of our sinful natures, the part that always wants another cookie, a bigger house, a nicer TV…I have come to hate that voice. I will avoid any product that tries to influence my purchase decision by telling me I deserve it. Why? First of all, the appeal is insanely selfish. If I deserve it, it must follow that someone else does not. I have achieved more. I am special.”
Those words stuck with me, leaving that unsettled lingering feeling. The one thing I disagree with Phil is that I am not sure this is a “little whisper.” It seems to come at us from so many different angles; in stereo.
What is whispered deep inside of us, that if we do not take the time to quiet ourselves we may miss, is the voice of God saying: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3-4).
As we struggle to figure out who God is in our lives, let us hear his voice that calls us together as a community to learn, serve and worship Him.
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