Have you ever bought something to fill a hole in your heart? We all have. In other words, we all have hyper-consumed. ‘Hyper-consumption’ is the over-consumption of goods and services beyond one’s need, often to fulfil aspects of our self-generated identity: a fast car not for its own sake, but to reflect your personality; daily lattes and boozy dinners as a way of finding your place in the corporate world; a renovation itch to lift a dated, but otherwise perfectly functional home.
It is endemic across all industries in Australia. A 2021 study found that the average consumer throws away over 300kg of the food we buy,[1] mainly due to excessive purchases; we upgrade our phones before they break; the average Australian purchases more than fifty items of clothing per year.[2] We are producing, consuming, and throwing away more than our Earth and its resources can handle.
Does the Christian gospel impact the ways we do—and do not—consume?
It Is Necessary to Consume
Consumption in and of itself is not wrong. In fact, it may reflect a biblical pattern of human interconnectedness, and in doing so, help us recognise our creaturely finitude. Our consumption pattens often prove to us how much we need each other: we commute to work, relying on the hard work and thoughtfulness of town planners and train drivers; we eat our steak sandwich, reaping the benefits of diligent farmers and growers.[3]
We cannot live without each other. This is the way God has created us: relational beings who give to and take from one another. In our consumption of goods, services, and experiences, we learn how to be interconnected, dependent, and grateful—for the service of others, and to God, for providing us these good gifts (Jas 1:17).
So this is not a call to achieve some kind of pure, isolated self-sufficiency, where we endeavour to consume only what we can provide for ourselves. Whilst this may correct some imbalance on the current economic scales, it detracts from the interconnectedness for which we were created, patterns of which may reflect aspects of God’s good design. Furthermore, this sort of small-scale communal living is unattainable for a world in its current population size anyway.
However, even if the act of consumption may not be sinful, arguably at some point hyper-consumption is.
Consuming for Self and Others
How much of our spending is not to meet our needs, but rather for the expression of self and the impressing of others? It is sad to see how Christians, at least in the West, have also bought into the hedonistic lie of our century that life is for self-expression. We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
How would our attitudes towards things and experiences change if we believed life is not lived for pleasure, and we are not what we wear, do, eat, or see? How would our desires for the new, novel, and beautiful be tempered if we truly believed that nothing in this world can provide lasting satisfaction, and that much of the Christian life is one of eager waiting, selfless giving, and delayed gratification?
We pay lip service to the blessings we have received in Christ (Eph 1:3) and continue to look enviously at things we wished we had, places we want to go before we die, and upgrades we felt we must make. How do we correct these tendencies?
The Cross as the Great Equaliser
If we find ourselves buying things and experiences to manage our projection to the world, then we need to consider afresh what the cross of Jesus Christ has achieved for us. If there is any symbol that ought to brand a Christian’s life, it is the cross upon which our Saviour died. On the cross, God revealed with full and glorious clarity who he is, what he has done, and how we should follow him. We contemplate that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, whose goal was not self-expression or actualisation, but self-sacrifice for the sake of others (Mk 10:45). We recall that even our Lord, who had the right to unquantifiable riches, did not have a place to lay his head to rest (Matt 8:20). We are reminded that we are not made to merely reflect the sum of our life experiences, but to specifically be living witnesses of God’s saving grace upon his creation (2 Cor 5:20).
And so, we can attest to all the aspects of God’s beauty and goodness in creation by enjoying trips overseas and gourmet food, but can still be cheerful if we don’t have the means to enjoy them. We can see our time and money not merely as to be spent for our own sakes, but for the poorest and neediest in our churches, knowing this is pleasing service to the Lord (Matt 25:40). We don’t have to gauge the success of our days by how hyped or exciting they are, but endeavour to lead godly, faithful lives, even if that means living quietly (1 Thess 4:11). In all these things, we show the world that we are not what we wear, where we go, and what we eat. We are who we are because of whom we believe. And the one in whom we believe has positively expressed his views of us in the death of his Son on the cross: we are dearly loved (Rom 5:18; 1 Jn 3:16), and our futures secure. What further approval do we need (Gal 1:10; 1 Thess 2:4)?
Made for Another World
C.S. Lewis, reflecting on his quests for pleasure in this life, could only conclude that he was created for eternity:
There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise … If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.[4]
Sixty years later, despite great advancement in technology and excess, we too have arrived at the same conclusion: everything is amazing, and nobody is happy.[5]
Now we have a choice: to plug this gap through purchasing the next big thing or experience, or considering again the beauty and power of the cross of Christ, and letting the gospel message shape our affections and priorities.
It is perhaps when we share Lewis’ sentiment that we can also share in his determination:
I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.[6]
[1] National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study: Can we halve Australia’s food waste by 2030?, The Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre, 2021.
[2] Clothing Data Report, National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme, Australian Fashion Council, 11 May 2022.
[3] Kelly M. Kapic, You’re Only Human, Chapter 7: Have We Misunderstood Humility?, pp. 97–118.
[4] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Touchstone: New York, 1996, pp. 120-121.
[5] Comedian Louis C.K. in an interview with Conan O’Brien on October 1, 2008.
[6] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 120-121.
