This time of the year brings out in me a longing for the enduring and meaningful things in life – renewed worship and faith, enjoying my family and friends, being moved by the privilege to be generous, recounting the many blessings in my life, being in awe of the Gift that God has given to humankind. These are some of the things that help me experience wholeness and meaning in the midst of life’s challenges.
But in parallel to this, the season also kicks off the pinnacle of consumerist madness – the Christmas shopping season. The frenzy can be fun initially, but I soon fatigue from the onslaught of out-of-control consumerism.
Recently, my friend, Donald McGilchrist, sent along this quote from The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris that’s caused me to reflect on the effect of our consumer culture.
Striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers, buying more bits and pieces — two or more cars, two homes and all that fills them — and outfitting one’s body for a wide variety of identities: business person, homebody, amateur athlete, traveler, theater or sports fan. Things exercise a certain tyranny over us.
Do we understand and believe that we are more than the niches and market segments we represent, the products we buy, and the various personas and identities we project to others? Do we really know that we are not the sum total of the things we buy, that our value is not calculated by the stuff piled up in our lives, and our worth is not tied to the fragile charades we might play in all our roles?
As the entropy of a consumer culture causes things to fragment more and more and fly off in centripetal fury, let’s recover the fact that it is Christ who holds all things together and makes lives whole. He’s the gravitational force that can keep us whole.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
— Colossians 1:17, New International Version
As you walk through this season, be aware of the impact of consumerism on your longing for wholeness.
And as business leaders, let’s make a commitment to develop products, services, and practices that help people experience wholeness rather than fragmentation.
And let’s all be aware of viewing others through the narrow lens of the marketing mindset. Let’s be mindful that we live with whole people made in the image of God.
