Creators or Consumers?

For a while I was pondering buying an iPad. The sleek design, the status symbol of the silver apple logo, the cool glass on your fingertips as you swipe your way through all kinds of apps. It was more than a want, it was a need, it felt like I would die without it.

But, I didn't get one. I was close, I went into the store with enough money in my pocket to buy one, but nothing ever eventuated. My 'need' was slowly surpassed by other 'needs' like a banjo or an ebook reader or a jazz guitar. 

My preparation for the purchase was huge. I looked at as many reviews I could find during my spare time, ranging from the "It will just be a dust magnet" to "It will flip your world upside down with its amazingness."

One review though was very interesting. It pointed out the difference between consuming information and creating it. It remarked that iPads were not meant to produce information, only to consume it. For instance, you could watch as many videos and read as many articles very comfortably on your iPad, but to go out and shoot film or to write stories, that was not what the iPad was designed for.

What about us humans? Are we designed to create or to consume?

In Ecclesiastes the writer makes this statement

There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

Cynical as it is, it is true. When we "create" things, all we are actually doing is rearranging atoms around that were already there. We are in a spiral of never ending consumption. Fulfilling our wants and needs.

Only God, who created from nothing, can be called the creator. Whether we choose to ignore him or to live for him, everything on this earth is supplied by him. In his grace, we are given the oxygen to breathe, the muscles to move, the earth to nurture, and so much more.

Another crushing blow to my pride knowing that I have no more independence than a child, but my response is praise and thanks knowing that God is love and his grace is never ending.