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We consumers have our own doctrine of salvation by grace alone: All that is required for happiness is more money. No time-consuming and humbling disciplines, no complex or unfulfilling relationships, no pain. But this is no cheap grace—as a mature, fully devoted follower I have learned that lesson well. Getting all that money requires constant diligence, which is why I will continue working harder, moving more often, and outsourcing anything that doesn't increase my income. Because the one thing a consumer can never, never have is enough.

Andy Crouch says that while this fiction is hardly autobiographical, he is as tempted as the next person by consumerism.

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Previous Christianity Today articles on consumer economy include:

Why the Devil takes VISA | A Christian response to the triumph of consumerism. (Oct. 7, 1996)

Christmas Unplugged | Why spending less and turning off TV should be part of the church's mission to the world. (Dec. 9, 1996)

The Bobo Future | "Bourgeois bohemians" wield inordinate power over how we think about consumerism, morality—and faith itself. (July 25, 2000)

Winning pieces in Christianity Today's 1999 Faith and Consumerism Essay contest included:

Shopping for the Real Me | Why nothing ever quite fits right. (Nov. 15, 1999)

Keeping Up with the Amish | We evangelicals have made a too-easy peace with the inroads of consumer culture. (Oct. 4, 1999)

Trapped in the Cult of the Next Thing | If ever there was a cult that gave us stones when we asked for bread, this is it. (Sept. 6, 1999)

Earlier Andy Crouch columns for Christianity Today include:

Generation Misinformation | Forget the latest PowerPoint seminars on Generations X-Z.

Dead Authors Society | We're no longer interested in tasting death but only little morsels of cheer. (Mar. 28, 2001)

Promises, Promises | Our technology works. But all idols do at first. (Feb. 21, 2001)

A Testimony in Reverse | I have discovered how inconvenient it can be when God actually does speak. (Feb. 5, 2001)

Crunching the Numbers | A modest proposal for measuring what really matters in church life. (Dec. 20, 2000)

Crouch is editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly.

Many of Crouch's other writings are available at his and his wife's Web site.

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July 8 2001, Vol. 45, No. 9