People Who Come After Us

Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
Ps 90:16

The Christian church these days seems to be possessed by a demon of consumerism. It is considered to be an article of faith among those claiming to be evangelical that God's blessings are not just to be used, but to be used up. Because they have hitched the wagon of their faith to the star of a political agenda, they have chosen consumerism over stewardship, and themselves over their own children.

Yet in reading this penultimate verse of the 90th Psalm, I noted that Calvin seems to disagree with my contemporary brothers and sisters, saying that "by this example we are taught, that in our prayers we ought to extend our care to those who are to come after us." As Christians, our lives are not our own. They belong to God, and to those whom God has put under our care. And all people who come after us, from the greatest to the least, are currently under our care.

Forgive our selfish use of your gifts, Lord. Free us from desire and grant us true gratitude for the things and the people you have placed in our hands; in the Name of Jesus Christ, your own Son, who taught us to pray...