Winning the Rat Race
This book (Man in the Mirror) was first copyrighted in 1989 and it is interesting that in 17 years that some of the cultural references are a bit dated but the meat of what Morley is saying is still relevant to our lives. It is characteristic that our cultural references change rapidly since that is part of the Rat Race that we live in. We’ve seen so much change in our lives that we don’t really notice much anymore. Years ago I would read about various computers and try to buy the best one because I was accustomed to my tools lasting for years. Now I just buy the next one and if I don’t like it then it won’t matter much because I’ll only have it a little while and then it will be gone.
Morley discusses the way consumerism has affected and ensured our participation in the Rat Race. We become at least subconsciously and sometimes consciously convinced that stuff will make us happy. This generally in spite of considerable experience to the contrary. Do you realize how foolish it is to ignore your experience that stuff doesn’t increase your happiness and continue to strive as if the next bit of stuff is special stuff that will increase your happiness? It truly is dumb.
I went out for a few groceries with my wife yesterday and on the way home we were behind a really pretty convertible corvette. It was moving slowly for a corvette. It had the license plate “JJIREH7”. I’m assuming that was intended to communicate that God (J = Jehovah) provides (Jireh = Hebrew for provides) completely (7 = the biblical number for completeness). Now I guess I was supposed to think it was a good witness. I had been working on the lesson and kept looking at it and thinking about it. I’m glad he was moving slow because it really took me a while to put my finger on what was bothering me about it. Of course the sentiment is good and I hope no one knows the owner. However, if it isn’t blasphemous to put it on a car then you can sure see blasphemy from where it is. Stuff, how dare we put something like that on a thing? Jehovah Jireh is a precious name for God. It comes from Genesis 22:8 and was given to us when Abraham was climbing up to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac asked where the sacrifice was and Abraham told him that God would provide. It foreshadows the Lamb of God. Jehovah Jireh means that God provides a sacrifice in my place. I admit that I’ve used the name to provide encouragement that God will take care of me and give me what I need. There are other scriptures that tell me that God will take care of my earthly needs. I pray that I’ll never again use Jehovah Jireh to mean anything other than what it means in a Biblical context. Nothing on earth deserves to have that name placed on it. Paul had plenty to be proud of but the following verse is what Paul said.
Philippians 3:7-9
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
And we remember that “rubbish” here is a strong term that includes the excrement from animals and we should probably at least think “putrefied garbage” when we read “rubbish” here. We should also remember here that Paul’s context is an obedience to the teaching of the law and prophets. He had something that was worthless next to Christ but the education he had was used by God in the formation of the first century church. If we could have been in the room after Paul penned this portion of the Word and asked him, “Well Paul how would you rank knowing Christ in relation to the fastest camel in Israel or the donkey that could carry the most weight?” then he would look at us like we had lost our minds. Arguably maybe we have.
Why do I labor this point? I labor the point because it is at the heart of what Morley is trying to communicate to us. The surpassing worth of knowing Christ, the Lamb of God, makes all other things rubbish. God has blessed me with lots of stuff but it is truly “rubbish” in the Biblical sense compared with the Sacrifice that Jehovah Jireh gave in my place.
I challenge you to sit down and pray and ask God to free you from the idea that stuff will make you happy. Pray that you’ll repent from continuing to seek happiness from stuff in the face of abundant evidence that it will not bring happiness and be happy with what you have in Christ.
If you pay attention … advertisers make it clear what motivates us. At first I wanted to say “what they think motivates us” but they have experience and they are pragmatic. They test and measure and they know what motives us. It isn’t a very pretty picture for men. Maybe I should say a pretty picture is all it takes for men. We are so simple that they don’t really need to work very hard at all. They just insinuate that the hair product, cologne, vehicle, or any product whatever will make you more attractive to young extra healthy women or give you the new toy on the block or both and then we are sold. It is often subtle but it obviously works because they are pragmatists and they present products in the way that works.
Morley makes that point that it looks like men have been lulled into mental and spiritual complacency. How else could you explain being exposed to sales material that makes it clear that we are dimwits at best and not being offended? They have a transparent strategy. They connect sex and power to the product and you want it. They also know what works and they are pragmatic. If it weren’t true they would stop.
Even Mick Jagger had trouble sorting it all out. Remember the lyrics in “Satisfaction”?
“When I’m watchin' my TV
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me” - Mick Jagger
There are a series of commercials right now with cavemen who are upset and meeting with the leaders of a company that keeps advertising that their product is so simple that, “a caveman can use it”. The cavemen are really upset but we don’t even seem to notice what they are saying about us.
Again, I challenge you to sit down and ask God to make you aware of aspects of your nature that are used to mislead you and misdirect you. Ask for sensitivity to the leading and direction of God that makes you independent from your sin nature and the cultural trash that piles up in our lives.
Wilfred M. McClay is a Senior Fellow of The Trinity Forum and is professor in humanities and history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has written on the topic of happiness and points out that, “Happiness is a matter of having the right expectations.” Paul said;
Philippians 4:11-13
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Paul expectation was that God would strengthen him and use him to spread the Gospel. Some of the older translations have a misleading phrase in verse 11. They translate the verse as if Paul was saying, “I have learned in whatever situation I am, therewith to be content”. That isn’t accurate and it is misleading. Paul isn’t content with the situation. The situation isn’t part of the expectation. Paul believes that God will sovereignly guide and direct his life. When God leads me though the “valley of the shadow of death” I am not content with the valley. I’m content with God and His leading. When God blesses me in this world and I abound and have more than I need then I’m not content with abounding. I’m still content with Him and His leading. It sounds like a subtle difference but it is a world of difference in your heart.
The Madison Avenue lifestyle is bankrupt and will bankrupt your life. They talk you on to a treadmill with no easy way off and then distract you with promises of happiness while you run yourself to death. We are convinced by our culture that debt is the quickest way to happiness and we take on enough debt that we spend our lives servicing the debt. That is no way to live and as Christ works in our heart we can live with a different set of goals and values. Morley says that one of the chief reasons that a person fails after being promoted is because they keep doing the old job. Our hearts need to be yielded quickly to God so that He can place His values in our heart.
Wilfred McClay also pointed out that since expectations are central to happiness, “ideas have everything to do with happiness … ideas about life, death, God, nature, causality, moral responsibility, and human possibility … what we believe about the world’s structure and meaning will determine what we think happiness is, and how we can act to gain it for ourselves. What we believe provides the basic structure of what we expect.” We don’t study Biblical doctrine just for the sake of knowledge. Of course if God said it then that is a sufficient reason to memorize it and repeat it to each other but God in His gracious treatment of us uses Scripture to teach us how to live. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We are supposed to bear Joy as a fruit. Our relationship with God and our obedience to the teachings of the Word will produce appropriate ideas and expectations in life.
We studied Piper’s work “Don’t Waste Your Life” not too long ago and Piper said, “God is most Glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”. Piper isn’t saying that we should be satisfied with less. It isn’t less to enjoy the display of God’s glory in Jesus Christ. At the very core of our being the Christian finds joy and happiness in the glory of Jesus Christ. A corvette is a nice car but a tragically sorry substitute for that happiness. When you rejoice in Jehovah Jireh then you go ahead and rejoice for the Biblical reason.
Paul says, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14).
Sometimes we sing a hymn for years and only on rare occasions hear the words. I’m sure that we’ve all sung “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” before but these words from Isaac Watts are precious and Isaac knew what was of value in his life. John Wesley said that he would give up authorship of all his hymns if he could say he wrote this one.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Isaac Watts
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