The Good Old Days
Theme of the Week: Downsizing with Class
M. Craig Barnes
Monday, December 5, 2005
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Enjoy prosperity while you can. But when hard times strike, realize that both come from God (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Bonus Reading:Deuteronomy 8:7-18
"When you are my age," wrote James Michaels in Forbes magazine, "You don't have to ask: Are Americans really materially better off than they were in the recent past? Those of us born in the 1920s and with vivid memories of the Depression simply know how much better things are today. … If he was fortunate enough to have central heating (less than one third of the population did in 1920), the middle class dad had to pull himself from bed at 4:00 a.m. on cold winter mornings to unbank the furnace and shovel coal; if he overslept, the pipes froze. But he usually didn't have to rake leaves or shovel snow. Not in the 1930s. That was done by shabby, humble men who knocked at the back door in the mornings asking for a warm meal in return for doing chores."
Michaels goes on to remind us that 80 years ago the typical workweek was at least 60 hours. The leisure industry didn't exist because no one had leisure. For half of the population, the family toilet was a hole in the backyard. Life expectancy was about 54 years, which was just as well, because there were few pensions beyond what a gold watch may have brought at a pawnshop.
—M. Craig Barnes in Hustling God
My Response: I'll thank God for the prosperity I enjoy compared to other times and places.
Adapted from Hustling God (Zondervan, 1999) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Lord, help me to hold my belongings loosely so that I'm not diverted from Your Kingdom priorities.
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