The Down Lo: Livin' in Hyperreality

In years past I remember sitting through sermons in which pastors spoke on the struggle of jealousy when it comes to others’ professions, incomes, and lifestyles. Particularly in my monetarily lean collegiate days I can recall thinking, “Why would I be jealous of another’s career? I’m pretty sure I’ll be happy to simply have a job that pays me on a regular basis with more than just free food.” 

Then the real world sets in, and simply covering my expenses isn’t enough anymore. Sometimes throughout the day I will find myself fixated on self-serving demands: I want to globetrot; I want an iPhone; I want more recognition; I want yet another pair of shoes to add to my already ridiculously enormous collection. There never seems to be enough time or money these days, does there?

I’m reviewing a book right now that you can read about in the June issue of CBA Retailers+Resources so I won’t give away too much of it here, but rather I’d like to pull out a few quotes that haven’t left my thoughts since reading them this past weekend.

“The clear message behind hyperreality is that… we need to imitate the lives we see in movies, in advertising, in lifestyle magazines, in music videos, and on television – then we will be happy.”

“In a hyperreal culture much of our happiness is out of our control because it is tied up in a system of comparison.”

“You can spend all day wishing you had the lifestyle of a Hollywood celebrity, but the fact of the matter is that if you are born in the West, you have won the cosmic lottery.”

“Sure, we want freedom from the oppression of always having to measure up, to live life as a brand, constantly feeling the pressure to be interesting, attractive, and cool. But we cannot imagine what life would be like if we left all of that pressure behind. So we attempt to live as half slave and half free.”

“Jesus is asking them to believe in his way of living, of acting; he is asking them to trust him and get on board with his way of doing things. He is asking the crowd if they trust him enough to model their lives after his.”

How does this relate to you? Well, we can all always use an opportunity to check our hearts, but maybe we need to dig deeper than that. Maybe we – me, you, your customers, the body at large – need to come to the understanding that while growing Christian businesses and ministries may not be on par right now with something like creating the next Google, they do serve a greater purpose. They remind us that it’s okay to not live in the land of hyperreality, but rather in the land of God’s reality.

Music blares from my iPod in another room. Shane & Shane strum out one of their classic tunes. “His mercies are new. His mercies are new every morning. And that is enough for me.” Yes, I should think, that is enough for me.

Comments

[J Thomas]

Dear Lauren et al,

My first day on this blog and the 2nd comment already :) Extremely honest comments, Lauren. Thank you. You know, I recently read this article about the market survey that was done among the 17 prince & princesses of the world - Young, born into royalty type. Out of the many questions that were asked, one of them was this -- "If you had the power to redo your life or change anything, what would it be?". Universally all of them said that they would give up the fame, money & fortune to be an average struggling hard worker like everyone else. Isn't that funny I thought? The poor want and strive to become rich and have all the material things in the world. The rich want to give everything up just to have one day in the shoes of the poor. True Happiness or should I say Contentment, cannot be found in either scenario -- except through the words of a Carperter's son 2000 yrs ago - "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you rest".

God Bless you all,
J Thomas

[Lauren]

Thanks for your kind words! Much appreciated and very true!