Beware of Affluenza
One of my hobbies is to follow Global Trends. We are so fixated often as Americans on America we are out of touch with issues that most of the world is focusing upon.
This week many major world newspapers began to examine what is being called the “Super-Flu”. Here is what they are saying:
Some experts have been looking at the genetic structure of the virus which caused the 1918 pandemic, as well as a serious outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 for clues which may help doctors combat such an outbreak. There were three flu pandemics in the last century, in 1918, 1957 and 1968. Even though the 1957 and 1968 outbreaks were less severe than the Spanish flu, they still accounted for40,000,000 deaths between them (or 1% of the population). Researchers suggest that an approximate 30-year cycle between pandemics means we are well overdue for another one. (1% of America falling victim to influenza would mean 3,000,000 deaths!)
We need to listen because we have had our share of disasters with the flu or Influenza as it is properly called.
In the spring of 1918, as the nation mobilized for war, Private Albert Gitchell reported to an Army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease doctors knew little about. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000--more than in all the wars of this century combined--before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.
There is a super influenza coming that tragically will strike many people’s physical bodies. However as we all know – there is something far worse that a sick and dying body – and that is a sick and dying soul.
I believe that an even worse epidemic is already being reported. However it is not Influenza – it is Affluenza. To catch the difference, read Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy and the last chapter.
What is Affluenza? It is so dangerous even the world has noticed. It is the habitual chasing of money and stuff. One gifted Christian writer calls it --Possession Obsession. In September of 1997 PBS aired a special television program they entitled Affluenza. The topic was a warning against what the public sector has identified as the “modern-day plague of materialism.” Here are the symptoms they observed five years ago:
The average American shops six hours a week while spending forty minutes playing with his children.
By age twenty, we’ve seen one million commercials.
Recently, more Americans declared bankruptcy than graduated from college.
In 90 percent of divorce cases, arguments about money play a prominent role.
Here is the PBSD self-diagnosis questionnaire. As you think over these questions remember this is PBS not Paul, and yet they are saying the same thing! When the world points out our problems they are really bad!
If Affluenza is the disease, what’s the cure? If materialism is the poison, what’s the antidote? Paul offers an answer. Look again at 1 Timothy 6:17-19:
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.