”No need to read the menu, three words are enough—Big Mac Combo—utters from your mouth whilst you concern yourself with more important affairs.”
Man is a creature of habit. Many of us live in repetitious patterns of emptiness. The only thing that allows one to crawl out of bed in the morning is the anticipation of that next moment of pleasure—a coffee, a cigarette, a chocolate-covered donut, and for many, pornography. Remove those predictable moments and you will create a hopeless depression under which many would not be able to function. This is evident when trying to quit smoking, drinking or drugs, or attempting a fast, diet, or just endeavoring to watch less TV.
This is evident in the Western World’s eating patterns, which have drastically changed in the last 60 years. A change that is quickly becoming global as even isolated communities are becoming westernized. Culture is in a constant state of evolution. Directing that evolution is the key to power. Billions of dollars every year are poured into advertising and media to control behavioral patterns, whether it is a commercial on television or a thirty foot Whopper with Cheese on a billboard. Day after day, week after week, month after month, thousands of repetitious messages pour into our minds, you need this to be happy. The message becomes so common that we no longer hear it.
Sadly many are completely unaware of how ingrained that message has become in their patterns of living, thinking and feeling. Movies, TV, restaurants, and fashion, needs that have been established in the modern patterns of life.
We are creatures of habit, developing unconscious underlying behaviors that make up a large percentage of day to day living. The more a behavioral pattern is acted out, the greater it becomes ingrained, no longer needing the assistance of conscious decision.
It’s a marketer’s dream to establish buying habits. You see the Golden Arches; a decision is unconsciously made while the car drives as if controlled by an Onboard Computer Navigation System. No need to read the menu, three words are enough. Big Mac Combo utters from your mouth whilst you concern yourself with more important affairs. Below the arches boldly boast, billions and billions served, not representing the earth’s population, but her habits of eating.
When Israel became complacent and adopted the culture and lifestyles of their pagan neighbors, God sent holy Prophets. Prophets that would shake the patterns of their thinking. Prophetic words that would remind them of their spiritual roots. As painful as it is, we must wake up and learn how to swim against this powerful tide, able to live in the midst of the most influential kingdom ever to exist in man’s history.
There is a close connection to the culture that surrounds us, and how it is able to ultimately direct the manner in which we conduct our lives. Powerful influences which have injured thinking and damaged our emotions which in turn have hurt our faith and hope in God. But there is another even more powerful force that can help undue and protect you from this culture’s influence.
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