Cult of the next thing

Cult of the next thing

The doorways out of the cult is contentment rooted in two expressions “thank you” and “enough”

Well we know this. But simply knowing it doesn’t usually help. The cult is big, powerful, well organized, flawlessly run. It can usurp almost any impulse and then package it, market it, and make a profit out of it. Recently, a whole range of ads from cars to clothes to CD player have traded on a growing resentment against commercialism. All wheel drive sport utility vehicles with multi - million pesos plus price tags are touted as the magic means of escaping the artificiality of a word locked into an elephant, snorkeled amid schools of bright colored fish. And I’ve used money to buy those little sticky wax rings that seal sewer pipes on toilets. It was handy in both instances. But Mammon is a worthless god demanding, capricious, conniving. He’s surely and brutish, rarely lets you sleep well or long. He is sometimes generous, in a fickle way, but he has a well practiced habit of depriving you of taking deep and lasting pleasure in his gift. He brings with them the sour aftertaste of ingratitude “It’s not enough of fear it wont last o insatiability, I want more”

Maybe this is the worst irony of the Cult of the next thing; it doesn’t train us to value thing too much, but rather, too little. It teaches us to be discontent with what we have. Those in the cult cherish nothing. Craving always chokes out treasuring.

The doorways out of the cult are called contentment. And content “Tell us, sister! Tell us!” the worshipers shouted back.

“Oh, I love Him so much; I don’t know where to begin to tell you how good He is,”

“Begin there, sister! Begin right there!”

“Oh,” she said. “He is so good to me.  For three months, I prayed for shoes. And look” and at that the woman cocked up her leg so hat we could see one foot. One very ordinary shoe covered it. “He gave me shoes.”

The Ugandans clapped and yelled and shouted “Hallelujah.”

I didn’t. I was devastated. In all me life, I had not once prayed for shoes. And in all my life, I had not once thanked God for the shoes I have. Later it came to me that the deepest theological concept is not the doctrine of transubstantiation or the theories of atonement or the arguments for theodicy. No, the deepest theological concept is thankfulness, because to thank God in all things and for all things is to make the boldest statement about who God is; is He a giver or a taker? If you ask for bread, will He give you a stone?

- Mark Buchanan

Hurricane Sandy aftermath 2012

Hurricane Sandy is seen churning northwards in this NOAA handout satellite image taken on October 25, 2012. The hurricane, strengthening rapidly after crossing the warm Caribbean Sea, slammed into southeastern Cuba early on Thursday with 105 mph winds that cut power and blew over trees across the city of Santiago de Cuba. REUTERS/NOAA National Hurricane Center/Handout.

These are the unforgettable images after hurricane Sandy in Unites State

Day 1: Associated Press/The Miami Herald, Carl Juste - Residents of Leogane, Haiti find higher ground as the water level continues to rise Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. Residents of Leogane have had five consecutive days of rain in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which caused serious flooding and claimed at least 26 lives in the impoverished country. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Carl Juste) MAGS OUT

Day 2:  People walk on a street littered with debris after Hurricane Sandy hit Santiago de Cuba

Resident Antonio Garces tries to recover his belongings from his house destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in Aguacate, Cuba, Thursday Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba on Thursday as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Accident story

 "It was a beautiful Saturday morning in May, though it was somewhat more humid than usual because of a prolonged El nino summer. A layer of dust settled on the banana plants and other vegetation around the little Seventh day Adventist Church we go to, caused by vehicles o the unpaved road passing in front of the Church."

To avoid the dust of this long, hot summer, instead of driving straight to the vacant lot adjacent to the front of the church which we are using as a temporary parking lot, we drove around the block and parked by the back gate. We did this because we wanted to serve space in the front lot for the vehicles of a singing group who would present a mini religious concert that day. Also, a doctor from Manila Adventist Medical Center, together with his team who would conduct a special intercessory prayer meeting later in the afternoon, would need to park his van in the front parking lot, too.

When everyone had gone inside the church, I went back to the car to lock its door. I swung the back gate a little to check that it didn't touch the car's side mirror. It was then that the accident happened! The small rusty hinges of the gate - now made brittle by their long exposure to the elements - gave way! The gate pirouetted on one side, first whirling around for awhile until it hit the front "tapaludo" hood of the car. I held the detached gate to prevent it from doing more damage to the already dented hood. I wrested with it with all my might, but the massive Iron Gate was simply beyond my strength to control.