By David Phillips
Good morning! Thought you had gotten away from me, didn’t you? Well, not so fast. For a lot of us, quarantine is mostly over, at least so far as church services are concerned. But for a lot of folks, it still is in place, due to health problems, immune deficiencies, and so forth. For the rest of us who are able to return to the assembly, we’re still under some burdensome restrictions, so technically, it’s still going on. We had a very good service on Sunday, with 70 worshippers present, and it was really good to see us back together again. We look forward to when everyone will be comfortable with sitting together, hugging and shaking hands. We’re getting there, a little at a time. In the meantime, I’ll try to continue these messages, spaced a little farther apart now, until we get back closer to normal.
Fueling the Fire
I’ve noticed in recent years, in our ever-adjusting culture, most of us have learned to get along in life by practicing what is called the adaptation-level phenomenon. This is the attitude most of us have that looks forward to a situation or condition, then once it is accomplished, immediately looks beyond it, longing for something better. It can be clearly seen in some really simple examples, like a broom. According to Popular Mechanics Magazine (online), rudimentary examples of the broom date back to as early as 2300 B.C. But none of them ever worked well, or held together until the device was perfected in 1797, by Levi Dickenson who made one for his wife from sorghum tassels. The thing worked so well he was soon making and selling hundreds of them across New England. Dickenson’s hand-made brooms became the standard, until the invention of the foot-treadle broom making machine was invented in 1810. Who could ask for anything better? Well, actually James Murray Spangler could, because he was a department store janitor in Canton, Ohio who suffered from asthma, and sweeping the huge, dusty store every night was taking a toll on his health. So in 1907 he patented his Electric Suction Sweeper, and the first one was cobbled together from a brush, a ceiling fan motor, a leather belt and a pillowcase. Nowadays we call it a vacuum cleaner.
We’ve learned to never be satisfied with the status quo, but to always look ahead and long for something better, and that attitude has fueled the fires of ingenuity and invention that today, has risen to unbelievable levels. But that can be a two-edged sword, with both a good and a bad side. Let’s take a quick look at the good first. It is good for industrial progress and invention, but God also tells us that we should never stop making progress. Peter says in 2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul’s example is expressed in Philippians 3:13-14: Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The goal we all want to reach is only reachable by pressing on, not by sitting still.
The downside of the never-satisfied attitude comes to play when we let physical, earthly, temporal concerns become greater than the spiritual, heavenly, eternal matters (2 Cor.4:17-18). When that happens, our quest for forward spiritual progress takes a back seat to the longing for earthly satisfaction. The Bible warns of that danger in many ways, in many passages. The story of the Rich Young Ruler (Matt.19) is based on that theme. The love of great possessions drives the quest for more, usually to the detriment of spiritual progress. Colossians 3:2 advises Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. On the subject of earthly goods, Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:7-8, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Obviously, in the realm of the development of products and services to improve quality of life, the adaptation-level phenomenon is a good thing, and in spiritual pursuits, we should never be satisfied with where we are, but always press on. But a healthy balance is vital, and a spiritually-attuned value system is irreplaceable, in order to keep walking in the light (1 John 1:7).