Don't let the title fool you, this blog is not morbid, sad, or hopeless. I am currently reading a book called "Radical", and so far it's pretty good. But the chapter I read today really struck me. It's talking about how the "American Dream" is actually a very selfish notion. Here's the quote from the guy who coined the phrase "American Dream", his name is James Truslow Adams in 1931, "a dream...in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are."
Now this sounds all nice and good on the surface, because it's all about working hard at what your good at and doing so well through hard work that you end up reaching your maximum potential, then in the end other people notice and praise you for what you've done. Once again this is all well and good, but there's one major flaw here and this flaw is really bigger then you might think. The American Dream is all about 'self'. There is nothing there about glorifying the Father. It's all about me and what I did for myself. Don't worry about the fact that my gifts, talents, and abilities were all given me by the creator of the universe and he gave me those gifts to be a good steward of them for the advancement of the gospel and not for my glory, but for His.
If we buy into the American Dream, then we are buying into the idea that my life is about me and everything I do is about me and for me and for my glory. We Christians have bought into this idea far too deeply and I pray that we will dig out of this hole through the grace of God. That we will see that all we have, our abilities, resources, time, careers, family, etc; it is all for His glory and we are simply here on this earth to point to Him. Read through the scriptures, the people that 'got it' were constantly pointing to God in everything they did and not the literal pointing that we see sports stars do (most of whom I'm pretty sure do that for attention anyway), but the pointing to God through their words and deeds. Their lives pointed to the one who gave them all they had.
The goal of the "American Dream" is to make much of [me], the goal of the gospel [of Jesus Christ] is to make much of God. (Radical, pg47)
