According to many I'm supposed to be bothered by the growing gap between the very rich and the rest of us.
I'm not.
Income inequality isn't something new to this election cycle, and while it may be wider than it was four or eight years ago (hmmm..) I doubt it's as great as it was, say, during the great depression, or the days of the industry barons.
Instead of the gap, which I hear talked about but not quantified with statistical evidence, I'm bothered by our obsession with income. All the complaining about a gap evidences an envy of the wealthy and the very wrong notion that because they have more money their lives are better. That's the time honored fallacy that thinks happiness comes in direct proportion to stuff.
Pam and I are moving the opposite direction. It's no crusade, and we aren't on what would be a Don Quixote mission to prove anything to anyone. We've always been committed to living within our means, prefer a rural life, and realized retirement required even closer attention to a life of simplicity for economic reasons. Ours is a course of personal preference. If there's a principle involved (and there is) it's the ethic of stewardship.
We believe everything we have, money and stuff, came from God and belongs to him. We're called to be good and careful stewards of all of it. That doesn't require monastic simplicity and denial; we still enjoy dinner out and sit in leather recliners. But even if the line is difficult to locate, and is each person's to find, conspicuous consumption and materialism are inconsistent with the biblical mandate to focus on service and the life to come.
Over the last six months or so, ever since we decided to move to three acres on Baker Rd., we've been downsizing, which will ultimately lead, DV, to building our tiny house. Through that process we've come to realize that downsizing can also be accurately described as disencumbering. Having less means maintaining less, insuring less, heating/cooling less, and paying less. Life isn't about stuff, and the only way to fully experience that truth is to get rid of stuff.
I am not saying those who live in 3,000 sq. ft. homes, or drive BMW's, or take vacations to Europe are guilty of anything. As Paul says in Romans 14, each of us answers to God and we have no business judging others on matters not related to morality. Assuming we're not talking blatant, wasteful excess (and where is that line??) each of us decides what constitutes good stewardship.
No, this post was simply prompted by more Sunday morning programming that included talk from politicians and pundits about that wage gap. Those of us not in the 1% are supposed to be outraged by this growing income inequality, and, according to many, it will be a key dynamic in the way we vote a year from now.
Not me. Frankly, I'm inclined to feel sorry for the very wealthy, not envy them. Think how complex their lives are! They have expensive and elaborate security systems to guard their estates. Here? A 100' unpaved driveway through Douglas fir and alder trees that leads to a single wide in the woods. Anybody bent on thievery wouldn't waste their time. And we're having a great time.
If there's any recommendation in this post it's that we all have a few default questions we ask when we look at what we have and when we consider a purchase:
Is this consistent with a life of stewardship?
Am I expecting this to make me happier?
Will it make my life better, or just more encumbered?
Is this in any way diverting my focus from the life to come?
You could probably add to this list of questions. And again, those of us who call ourselves Christ followers have to answer them as individuals with no critique of other servants and their answers. But I can't see any scenario in which I should be bothered by the gap between me and the 1%. The hand wringing over that gap, not the gap itself, is the problem.
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