The gods of right now

Are you familiar with the marshmallow experiment?

The marshmallow experiment is a study on delayed gratification that was first done in 1972 by a professor at Stanford. If you are a fan of the Netflix show, "Magic for Humans", you may have seen Justin Willman do an amusing version of the experiment which was similar... but not quite the same. The experiment as it was designed places children in a room with a marshmallow on a plate. They are told the tester will be leaving the room, and they can eat the marshmallow if they would like, but, if they wait, they will get two marshmallows when the tester returns. The test is to see whether or not the children can delay gratification and wait in order to get the better deal.

Some of them can. They utilize their inner coping skills to motivate themselves to not eat the marshmallow, as the promise for getting two marshmallows is sufficient incentive. Others give in right away, stuffing the marshmallow in their mouths and gobbling it down.

What would you do?

As adults, we certainly have a greater sense of delayed gratification than children, right? Or... do we?

After all, we live in an instant gratification culture. We have easy access to information and answers to our every pondering right in the palm of our hands, or sometimes even on our wrists. The most popular apps nowadays are those which give us news updates or simple entertainment in a minute or less. There are convenience stores on every corner selling quick sugary snacks and drinks, not to mention cigarettes and alcohol. We make instant dinners rather than cooking all day. There are apps to talk to people to we don't have to face them and apps to order food so we don't have to get up off the couch.

We don't want to wait. We want the instant gratification. We want the right now happiness, even if we'll pay for it later (a moment on the lips...).

All of these conveniences come with dangers and dark sides. The spread of technology is associated with the spread of pornography, including child pornography and some other really dark stuff. We've also seen a rapid increase in child and sex trafficking, as more and more victims are being found through apps online. We are seeing social media bullying, misinformation campaigns, harmful viral "challenges", and people's social skills plummeting as they communicate via devices instead of face to face. Rates of loneliness are up, along with mental illness and suicides. Unhealthy eating habits and higher rates of obesity and diabetes are also present. Relationships are deteriorating, and people are more likely to use a dating app for a hook-up than for a connection.

Reflecting on everything these modern conveniences have brought us, both the good and bad, I wonder if maybe it was easier to be a Christian back in the day.

You know, way back in the day, like before Jesus' time. 

Okay, technically before Jesus' time they weren’t Christian, they were Jewish, but I wonder if it was easier to be a believer back then. There were fewer distractions. Fewer options for that instant dopamine hit. Fewer technological devices stealing our attention and killing our brain cells. Fewer easy access points to sin. More time to focus on God and one another.

Surprisingly, though, that's not what we see reflected in the Bible.

Think about the people in the time of Noah and the great flood. The Bible says they were "corrupt" and "full of violence" (Genesis 6). Or the Israelites, who, after being rescued from Egypt, built a golden calf to worship (Exodus 32-34). Or the entire story of Hosea, when the people were continually turning their backs on God to worship false gods.

I guess there have always been things competing for our worship and attention.

Do we eat the first marshmallow, or do we wait to have two? Apparently, across history, we as a people have often gobbled up the one.

Is it perhaps because the first marshmallow we can see and touch and wrap our hand around? Is it perhaps because the marshmallow is there, right now, and we don't trust whether or not the second will actually come? Perhaps it somehow feels safer or more comfortable. More certain.

Just like the children who could not wait, we do not wait. Instead of waiting for our God, we choose the gods of right now.

Sin wouldn’t be so tempting if it was boring.  Sin allures us with the promise of pleasure and instant gratification and that dopamine hit that feels so good in the moment... but will cost us later. Sin allures us with the promise of forgetting our stress and our pain, allowing ourselves to sink into a temporary state of forgetfulness and bliss.

But sin has a way of corrupting us. What we thought was merely temporary grabs ahold of us and we fall deeper and deeper along the slippery slope until we’re stuck so deep it’s hard to get out. Sin stains us on the inside. Sometimes on the outside, too.

We may think God is being limiting or restrictive or cruel, even, like my nine-year-old accuses me of being when I make him turn off his screentime. We think, why doesn’t God want us to have any fun?

But it's because God knows. He knows what sin will do to us. How it will damage us and steal our purpose in this life. Not to mention how it disrupts our relationship with Him. 

Sin is a sickness. And yet, oftentimes, we choose that sickness over the health He offers.

Why do we do that? Is health is harder, or do we perhaps not trust it? Do we think it comes with too many strings?

After all, health through grace is free - and yet will cost us everything.

We would rather chase the gods of right now. 

Most Christians don’t have an actual idol in their homes. We don’t have something made of silver or gold up on a pedestal that we worship or bow down to.

But we do have idols.

Maybe it’s a political party or person; maybe it’s an ideology or the American dream. Maybe it’s power or privilege or wealth. Maybe it’s the perfect relationship or the perfect figure or the perfect family. Maybe it’s being popular or an influencer and having a certain number of followers or a certain number of likes. Maybe it's being a philanthropist or doing good deeds. Maybe it's high achievement or a sought-after promotion or winning awards.

What is your idol? What is your god of right now?

In the long run, these false gods will not make us happy. These false gods will not save us from anything. These false gods will leave us empty-handed. 

I mentioned previously that I read Matthew Perry's memoir. It was a chilling insight into the mind of a man who struggled with substance abuse and alcoholism his whole life - which eventually led to his death. Perry talked about how he used alcohol and substances to escape the demons that plagued him: thoughts of worthlessness, feeling unloved and unseen, fears of rejection, and heartbreak. Yet as he sank deeper into his addictions, he found that every time he had to have more and more of something to have the same effect.

See, you won’t find worth or meaning or purpose in the gods of right now. They might numb you for a while, might satisfy for you for a bit, but eventually... the demons will come back. Whatever the hole or ache or need inside of you is, it will continue to ache. 

You don't truly need the gods of right now. You need the God of always and forever. That is all that will satisfy you in the long run.

And in order to receive Him, in order to truly see Him, we have to give up the gods of right now.