The World is Too Much With Us

When will we learn? I mean truly learn? I just marvel when I think about how we continue to reach for the brass ring (often at the cost of the golden band (rimshot)). This week I have been struck again by the way friends of mine are deepening the holes in which they are stuck rather than digging out. I have friends who in recent months have purchased newer and nicer cars and more expensive houses even after experiencing difficulty in making the payments on the ones they have. And for what? Is it not just a version of the excess we shake our heads about in stories like the cancelled prom in Long Island though perhaps on a different scale? Where is the line among the varying degrees of excess that when crossed says we have gone too far? For many of us, the notion that kids spend tens of thousands on prom parties on the other side of that line. For someone in a third world country the fact that the amount we pay monthly for television is enough to feed their family in that same month that places many of us solidly on the other side of the line. Perhaps even more important than where the line is drawn is how the line is drawn. By that I mean are we drawing our own line based on how we want to honor God or on how we want to be perceived by other people? We rarely look at this so objectively as to totally discount how people will view our actions or possessions, but clearly some are more adept at this than others. Some have learned that contentment is of much greater value than any possession or perception. Consider this piece by William Wordsworth.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The first few lines sound like they could have come straight out of scripture. "The world is too much with us." Ya think? "Getting and spending we lay waste our powers." Indeed, we have willingly forfeited control over our destiny not to God, but to others and what we hope they will think of us in human terms. To understand that Christ is the great equalizer of man must further lead one to understand that anything placing the importance of one person over another is in stark contrast to what God wants. Does it then follow that we are not to work toward greater things? Absolutely not. God expects us to use our gifts to the fullest potential they offer in the service of the one who granted them. He is not honored by those who choose not to use their gifts of by those who intend merely to live off the efforts of others while they squander their gifts in the mire of laziness of entitlement. But neither is He honored by those who use their gifts to impress others rather than honor God. For others to foster an environment that further allows this lack of accountability is to simply invite those taking advantage of others to continue and in so doing deny needed assistance due those who are oppressed or otherwise disadvantaged. But for those who are blessed with the ability to help those who truly are unable to help themselves God is honored.