The Economy of the Soul

What is it that drives the world’s economy of self? Currency is what drives any economy. The currency of our “goods and services” capitalist economy is money. Everyone wants money, and no one wants lose it. We will do nearly anything for money. If you don’t believe me, just look at the myriad of “reality” shows on TV. Each season, thousands of people are willing to endure extreme conditions or extreme ridicule and humility for the chance to win money. Storied sports franchises will change the name of their stadiums to a sponsor’s name for money. Disney will make any number of embarrassingly bad sequels to movies that were supposed to have ended “happily ever after” because there is profit to be had. We are a society of sell-outs. Yet even the desire for money, as a part of the world’s economy of self, is driven by a deeper currency. I was engaged twice in my life. The first time was during a period where I was clearly invested in the world economy, as was the young lady to whom I was engaged. My god was relationships. Hers was a good time. It is very hard to walk together on vastly different roads and over time, as we went our own ways, our relationship was torn apart. I cannot remember a more painful, unstable, fearful time in my life. I could see the writing on the wall, but was unwilling to admit my failure. I was afraid to fail and of what that would mean. I pretended it was working, but to no avail. I was afraid to lose her; afraid to live without her. I was afraid to keep her because the cost of maintaining the very fragile, dying relationship was way too high for me to keep up. I was a good person with good intentions, but was completely consumed by the bad investments I had made. There are a lot of good people enslaved by the world’s economy. They have built their lives on the proverbial sand. As that foundation shifts and ebbs and moves, they become more and more fearful and work harder and harder to shore up their lives, but to no avail. It may look all good on the outside, but appearances are deceiving. We know that eventually all we have will fade away. The new car becomes old and we “need” to get a new one. The fine clothes become “this old thing” and it’s time to shop. “Look and feel younger” immediately gets our attention because we are woefully aware of our own fading. We fear what we cannot control and we are surrounded by reminders that we can control far less than we would like to believe. We have bought into a system that is broken. In the spiritual economy of our culture the currency is not as shallow as mere money. The currency is fear. Fear is what drives us. We are naturally fearful because we naturally see ourselves as far more important that we really are. We make too much of ourselves, and too little of what really matters. Pride comes in two colors, “I’m so great,” and “I’m so worthless.” In either case, it is all about “me.” We are raised in this mindset that the world revolves around “me”. Me-first is at the heart of every sin whether it is a sin of commission (something you do) or a sin of omission (something you neglect to do). We step into these sins based on one simple criterion: “What’s in it for me?” ~ Nowhere is the currency of fear more obvious than in the gang culture. It is fear that drives these young people to come together. They want the protection of a family, but they don’t feel they are getting that at home, so they seek safety in numbers outside a healthy home context. They fear that they will not achieve significance or financial stability, so they come together to secure it by whatever means they can. Fear drives their actions and dictates their endeavors. Conversely, they rely on the fear of others to get what they want. On a less obvious scale, each one of us does the very same thing. We measure ourselves by the standard of the world: what we should look like, how we should dress, the car we should be driving, the job we should have. These things cease to be a part of our lives – resources within our lives – and they become the standard by which we measure our worth and find our identity. Based on temporal possessions and ever-changing trends we form an image of self that we believe will make us both important and happy. We ascribe far too much value to material possessions and the opinions of others and we take upon ourselves a burden we were never meant to carry; one that will drain us of all our time and energy and life. We invest so much in this false self that we are afraid to let it down, we are fearful that someone might discover who we really are, that we will not have the strength to keep up the act. Fear becomes our motivation, it becomes the measure for what we will or will not invest in. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ~ Matthew 6:19-23 Fear is the result of idolatry. When we violate God’s order and make anything other than him the main thing, we step outside the harbor of his protection and faithfulness. He remains, like the father of the prodigal son, poised to embrace us when we return to him, but he lets us bear the burden of our choices as well. When the world becomes not just a good thing, but the ultimate thing, life becomes much less stable. There is freedom in surrender. There is something to be gained in letting go. ~ Fear drives our decisions because we have undergirded our lives with dying things. Our lives are so fragile because the materials we are building with do not last, but we boast that they will. It seems that we are okay with this façade as long as we can appear that we are successful and in control. The problem with living in a fear-driven economy is that our priorities shift as we encounter things that we are more afraid of. In JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, there is a character named Grima Wormtongue. He has aligned himself with the wizard Saruman who has betrayed Middle-Earth to serve the Dark Lord Sauron. Grima’s subjection to Saruman is based on fear. The wizard orders this man around like a dog who obeys with his tail between his legs. It is not until the fear of defeat and insignificance overwhelm Grima that he turns on and attacks Saruman. Though Grima’s loyalties shifted, the driving motive behind his decisions did not. He was not driven by justice, chivalry, or honor. He was still driven by fear. Likewise, our lives are governed by our fears. The things we are afraid of are ever-changing as we gain new experiences or add more to our lives, but make no mistake, I choose to do, and not do, based on fear. And so do you. God does not want us to be driven by our fears. Three hundred and sixty-five times in scripture we are admonished not to fear. Fear takes our focus off of God and puts it on the things of the world as they pertain to us. Through this lens, things like truth are continually knocked out of focus. Our hearts grasp for anything that might provide some stability and more often than not, we wind up making really bad investments. There is a wonderful account in scripture that illustrates this point. Jesus gets in a boat with his disciples to cross the sea of Galilee and continue preaching and teaching to towns on the other side. We will pick up when an unexpected and unwelcome event intrudes: “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the