Opinion column

Making best use of our God-given blessings

James Knight wonders if Christians should enjoy relatively luxurious lifestyles when there is so much deprivation elsewhere in the world.

One problem that’s always troubled me is how terrible we all are when we don’t think we are being terrible at all. In fact, it’s so bad and potentially upsetting that the only way I find I can go about my day to day business is if I put it to the back of my mind and pretend it isn’t really as bad as it is. Because if I didn’t, it might paralyse me.
 
I’m talking about the sins of omission built into modern life: how we regularly fail to use our money, time, and energy in ways that could alleviate real suffering or even save lives. We spend hundreds - sometimes thousands - on upgraded cars, phones, home luxuries, streaming subscriptions, boutique coffee, fast fashion, and leisure travel, while children die from preventable diseases, families go without clean water, and entire communities lack basic provision. What must God think of us? That we can so easily justify comfort over compassion, convenience over conscience, and that we choose indulgence while others live and die in need?
 
But here is where it gets even stranger for me. I don’t think any of the decent people I know – which is probably most of you - would disagree in principle that this is, at best, a perverse use of our resources and our priorities, and at worst, an outright abnegation of our deepest responsibilities towards our fellow humans. If we had the courage to judge ourselves honestly on this, we’d probably want to hide our faces in shame. I know I would, and should.
 
Yet, it also doesn’t feel especially wrong to enjoy some of the fruits of our labour; a pleasant home, a reliable car, nice clothes, and a relatively decent standard of living where we get to enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner, watch a film on Netflix, and take a break aboard once a year.
 
On the one hand, it feels like I’ve made a reasonable argument above that we shouldn’t be treating ourselves to things we don’t desperately need at the expense of those who really are in desperate need. On the other hand, I can conceive of why we don’t feel too bad for the lives we are living, because life is textured and emotionally complex; and we’re not built to live in a constant state of guilt or self-denial. We crave beauty, rest, celebration, connection, and so forth - things that feel essential to being human.
 
The upshot is, most conundrums like this tend to be a matter of acquiring a balanced perspective. God places people in various walks of life with different talents, resources, and responsibilities. We can use what we’ve been given, not just for our own comfort, but for the flourishing of others.
 
The key question might not be “How do I eliminate all luxury?” but “How do I steward it well?” That is, how can my blessings be channels of grace - not just for me, but for others too?

James Knight is a local government officer based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as ‘The Philosophical Muser’, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). 

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.