One day I struck up a conversation with Mr. Silver, a kind, gentle, grandfather with a perpetual smile traced across the creases in his face. He reflected how he had achieved all his financial dreams. Yet something bothered him.

Yes, his financial standard of living was up, but an eerie feeling lingered that something wasn’t quite right. I showed him a graph of how our material standard of living has soared over the last century, while our moral/spiritual/relational standard of living has plummeted.

He said, “Yes, yes, that’s me! That’s exactly what’s happened to my life!” How about you? Are you better off? How do you measure your standard of living?

Until every church disciples every man…

Pat

(adapted from 25th Anniv. Ed. of The Man in the Mirror)