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Monday, February 13, 2012

Balancing the world

It is amazing to watch television.

I don't do it often. My life is filled with far too many interesting things to spend my time passively watching the kind of programming that is currently available. But, being a Packers fan by adoption, and having predicted that the Giants would win the Superbowl (they beat the Packers, it was a foregone conclusion that they should go all the way), with my community, I watched the Superbowl.

And the commercials.

It is a sort of semi-conscious habit, that when I watch television, I count the number of capital sins that are being advertised. Gluttony, lust, avarice, envy, pride, sloth and anger. The first five usually win out, although sloth usually isn't so blatant and anger gets in around the edges.

In pondering the question of poverty, too, this came to mind. Many people in our culture do not use property moderately. They have and acquire, and have and get (and cheat and steal). It's a bit unbalanced. Okay, it's a lot unbalanced.

Poverty goes a bit extreme on the other side.

If our world is heavy on the side of "stuff," those of us called to freely renounce "stuff" for the sake of the Lord and his people put weight on the other side.

It is not a renunciation so much as a much-needed medicine.

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