Midweek Musing- 7/10/2024

I wonder if you really know what time of year it is. Do you?

You might think it is the celebration of our nation’s independence or the middle of summer vacation travels. However, it really is, according to some, one of the bigger shopping seasons of the year. And yes, this is a rather new phenomenon.

This new human-made phenomenon began a few years ago when Amazon had its first Amazon Prime Day. This was planned to be a one-time only event where Amazon took items that some executives for the company later admitted were crowding warehouses and offered them at discounted prices to open space for incoming holiday merchandise.

They used lightning deals and countdowns and online advertising to motivate buyers to “buy now” before they sold the very last 3-year-old vacuum cleaner they had left.

This one-time event is now an annual tradition. It begins with pre-prime day sales and continues for a number of days. There are in-depth articles in newspapers and magazines. Morning talk shows have segments to get folks ready. Social media posts are everywhere. And you can even find people who stream themselves live shopping. They share their great discovery that surely will change their lives like no product—for example hand cream—has ever been able to do for them before.

What shocks me about these live streamers is that not only do people watch these folks shop online for hours but many even send them donations to support them and their “work” of videoing themselves shopping and talking about their shopping. (Honestly, I am not sure what to make of some things in this “new world” we live in.)

Not to be out done, Target and Walmart and Sam’s and Kohl’s and others now have their own events during this timeframe.

Some analysts say that at least for retailers, Christmas in July has arrived. And more and more stores seem to jump on this bandwagon every summer.

Of course, these retailers are really not doing anything new. They are simply tapping into people’s worries, fears and feelings of inadequacy and telling them they can finally be happy if they have x, y, or z.

Retailers also know we are swayed easily to want. They recognize our fear of being left out or inadequate, so they use all the tools in their arsenal to make us think we not only want but need whatever is being sold.

Matt Haig is an author who Brittany introduced me to in a fascinating book of fiction entitled The Midnight Library. In addition to fiction, Haig has written a memoir entitled Reasons to Stay Alive.

This book details his own struggle with depression, and how he learned ways to overcome and cope with the illness. He notes that he is just like nearly one in five people in America who suffer with clinical depression. He has said in interviews that this book is his account of how, minute by minute and day by day, he survived the disease.

In reading about this book, I came across a quote which speaks so well to why events like “Prime Day” are so successful in influencing our actions.

He writes, “THE WORLD IS increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more? How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturizer? You make someone worry about ageing. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind. To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.”

Jesus speaks to this very thing in Matthew chapter 6. It is when he discusses the flowers of the field and the birds of the air towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Most of you are familiar with it; however, you may not have read the interpretation of this text in Eugene Peterson’s The Message, so I’d like to share it with you.

““If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

Matthew 6:25-34 MSG

Friends, God is not opposed to us having what we need or even things we want; it is when those things become more important than the main thing of loving God and loving others that we have lost our way.

Though the world wants to make us believe that we are less than without whatever they are selling, Jesus wants us to remember that we are beloved just because we are God’s very good creation, and that, friends, is something that is priceless.

Thanks be to God that unconditional love and amazing grace is free to all – with no taxes or shipping fees.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.