I get a taste of the Good Life and Meet a Monster

I had the good fortune to be invited to a special recognition event that IBM throws every year. It was quite a show. We were wined, dined, and entertained for three solid days in a first rate setting in Florida.

We drove up to the hotel in our rental car and three men approached the vehicle, opening doors and trunk, and whisking us and our possessions into the lobby. Our registration may have taken 30 seconds and after that, we had no more cares than to decide what to wear when. Everyone was, “How is your stay going? Is there anything I can get you?”

It was sweet! Really sweet! Not a care I the world besides, “What should I wear to the next event.”

Getting back to the airport at Miami was a bit of a shock – suddenly we were schlepping our own luggage through the lines and dealing with all our own logistics again. Yuck.

I realized just how easily I could become a creatures of the pampered culture that turns so many decent human beings in to monsters. Imagine living your life in a world in which you never worry about dragging luggage out of your car (or even driving it if you don’t want to). A world in which all of the logistical headaches we take for granted simply never happen unless someone screws up. Suddenly, the vicious lashing out at rude service personnel you hear about occasionally makes a little more sense – at least it’s feasible in light of what is defined as “normal” for these folks.

My pastor has been talking about the nature of God’s spirit recently – both mighty and holy. In other words, able to do anything and only wanting to do that which is good. The upper class has enormous power simply by virtue of the money that they command. Without the desire to do good all the time, they can end up becoming tyrants. And the slope is very slippery. My party had a couple of little logistical glitches while we were at this event, and we were pretty tough on our hosts about it. In our real world, we wouldn’t dream of such a reaction.

The place this slippery slope is most evident for me is parenthood. I have all the power and a lot less of the holiness than my daughters need. It is so easy to behave badly and justify it after the fact. I pray that God will transform me to more and more act and think for good.