Trading the “American Dream” for the “heavenly vision”

The concept of the “American Dream” was popularized during the Great Depression in 1931. It typically includes buying a home, owning a car, getting married, raising children, having pets, taking vacations, retiring, and then dying. According to a new study, the estimated cost of all of that per household, over the course of a lifetime, comes to $4,442,050.

Here’s the problem: men average $3.3 million and women $2.4 million over their careers. No wonder we’re so stressed over finances these days: 47 percent of US adults recently said money has a negative impact on their mental health and causes them stress. According to a new survey, 73 percent of Americans rank their finances as their No. 1 stress in life, ahead of politics (59 percent), work (49 percent), and family (46 percent).

But what if we have the wrong “dream”?

“Not a dream of motor cars and high wages, merely”

James Truslow Adams, the writer and historian who first promoted the idea of the “American Dream,” defined it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

He added:

It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages, merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of what they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.

Adams’s concept is interestingly similar to what theologians call biblical anthropology. According to Scripture, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). As a result, we can say with King David, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

Our Creator is also our provider: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:28–31). 

Our Father not only wants what is best for us—he wants us to be at our best. In the words of Mr. Adams, he wants us to “be able to attain to the fullest stature of what [we] are innately capable.” This is why he endows us with abilities, capacities, resources, and spiritual gifts sufficient for our unique kingdom assignment. He then calls us to that mission which we can uniquely serve. In this way, Jesus uses us to continue his ministry on earth, serving as his body in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Does this mean that we are guaranteed financial prosperity? Not at all. Some of Jesus’ disciples were indeed prosperous, but others were not. What each had was enough to do what they were intended to do.

Their life purpose was not prosperity in this life but significance in the life to come. Everything in this world was a means to the ends of eternity.

When we see our finances as they did, we will “abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). We will “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” we will let our “requests be known to God” (Philippians 4:6). As a result, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus” (v. 7).

“He must not acquire many horses for himself”

The key is using the temporal for the eternal and not the other way around.

In 1 Kings 10 we read: “Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem” (v. 26). Why was this a problem?

The Lord earlier warned the nation that when they chose a king, “He must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lᴏʀᴅ has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again’” (Deuteronomy 17:16).

Solomon would soon violate verse 17 as well: “And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.” We read in 1 Kings 11: “King Solomon loved many foreign women . . . He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lᴏʀᴅ his God, as was the heart of David his father” (vv. 1, 3–4).

My point is that the Lord warned of the dangers of materialism as well as those of sexual immorality, placing the first before the second. Could it be that self-reliant materialism opens the door to other sins?

“I am God, and there is no one else like me”

Paul Powell observed: “Materialism is believing that life consists in the abundance of the things we possess. But life can come unraveled in a new suit as well as in an old one. The thrill of a new car passes as fast as the miles on the odometer. Family members can fight as violently in a mansion as they can in a mobile home.”

The antidote to the financial stress of our day is remembering who God is and who we are. It is seeing him as the King of kings and Lord of lords and ourselves as his beloved children. It is then using what he entrusts to us to fulfill not your “American Dream” but God’s “heavenly vision” for you (cf. Acts 26:19).

The next time you are stressed over material things, don’t look around but up. Max Lucado writes:

To what can we compare God? Who is like the Lord? What you are to a paper airplane, God is to you. Make one. Challenge it to race you around the block. Who’s faster? Invite the airplane to a game of one-on-one basketball. Will you not dominate the court? And well you should. The thing exists only because you formed it and flies only when someone throws it.

God asks Isaiah, “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” (Isaiah 40:25). As if his question needed an answer, he gives one: “I am God. I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me” (Isaiah 46:9). King David marveled, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7).

You and I may have power. But God is power. No one and nothing compares with him! (his emphasis).

Why do you need to trust his omnipotent grace today?