The American Dream Redefined
The American Dream (and Bragging Rights)
A COUPLE of decades ago, this was the ideal American life according to the media: 2.3 children, a white picket fence surrounding a split-level house with a dog and a cat. Throw in a minivan to transport kids to sports practice…
“The reason it’s called the American Dream is you have to be asleep to believe it.”
-George Carlin
Very funny, George. Were you jesting prophetically?
Dictionary.com offers two definitions of this Dream:
1) The ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American. (That is dreamy)
2) A life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.
Aha! Maybe #2 is where we took the wrong turn. Happiness and material comfort.
How is that ambition working out for us?
“Over 60 percent of all people who die by suicide (36,000 people per year) suffer from major depression. If one includes alcoholics who are depressed, this figure rises to over 75 percent. Depression affects nearly 10 percent of Americans ages 18 and over in a given year, or more than 24 million people. More Americans suffer from depression than coronary heart disease.” – American Foundation for Suicide
“Materialism is TOXIC for happiness,” says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener.
And we still brag about the new flat screen, the sports car, which stocks we bought, the 2nd house on the beach…. [And those who aren’t bragging, are secretly dreaming to someday possess these things.]
So what wise guy came up with the American Dream? Sounds like a statement spoken on a whim rather than one from thought-out wisdom.
Wisdom: taking all knowledge about a situation, filtering it through what’s true and right, and applying that insight to bring about the best possible outcome.
WHO on earth is that wise?
IF we pulled together our wisest scholars in all the earth in an attempt to solve humanity’s greatest problems, the best they could come up with (assuming they’d never disagree) would be a NOBLE solution. Nothing close to perfect.
Wny? Man lacks omniscience—the knowledge of all things in their full complexity, and the effects on every person according to his complexity, to include the possible outcomes and the outcome that will be.
Show me someone who’s omniscient, and I’ll show you someone to fear. Prov. 1:7
“Don’t let wise people brag about their wisdom.
Don’t let strong people brag about their strength.
Don’t let rich people brag about their riches.
If they want to brag, they should brag that they understand and know me.
They should brag that I, the Lord, act out of love, righteousness,
and justice on the earth.
This kind of bragging pleases me,” declares the Lord. (-Jer 9:23-24)
Your Word makes me wise
Your grace makes me powerful
Your riches are mine in a suffering economy
What else is there to boast in?
Ah, yes . . .
Your unfailing love,
Your justice and righteousness
Your character scores a permanent ten on the scale of perfection
To know you means I can live in the land and conquer it, too.
To know you intimately means more than having peace
It’s being a beacon of peace in someone else’s storm.
To know you deeply is allowing you
to be my force field against evil.
(Yoda had the right idea, but the wrong source.)
To know you deeply means
I can give until it hurts and never run out.
TRUTH: sacrificial giving causes funds to multiply so more can be given…sacrificially.
There’s nothing wrong with material stuff. Stuff is just stuff. It’s about out hearts. 
Make abundant living your new American Dream, and then watch the tide change in your favor.
The way of the Embattled Spirit
HIGHLY Recommended resources “The Blessed Life” This could change your life. (book, CD, or devotional)
