The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Today is Tuesday, October 3rd, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Yamikani Katunga and presented by Paul Schlehlein
Choosing Between an iPhone 15 and Your Family
In our world of ever-developing devices and novel announcements, this time of the year has come to be coined as ‘Tech-tember and Tech-tober.’ Annually in September the biggest and most successful company in the world, Apple Inc.–which has surpassed a market cap of $3 Trillion– attracts global attention with the fanfare that covers the release of their latest phone.
With the hype bubbling around the brand-new iPhone 15, MyBroadband, a top African blog, reported the cost in terms of the average worker’s salary. According to their research, a South African employee must save 27 days’ pay to afford the lowest-priced iPhone 15. With South Africa being the third-highest peak of the African economy in terms of GDP, one can only imagine comparative challenges in countries like Malawi, Zambia, and Senegal which are less than a tenth of the size of South Africa’s economy.
Considering the average employee has around 22 work days in a month, what are they are giving up to succumb to the allure of the affluent Apple aesthetic?
Take a moment to think of what a month of income might have contributed to. A roof over the head of a wife? Groceries for the daily sustenance of children? Clothing for the change in seasons? An emergency fund to prevent unforeseen circumstances from bankrupting the family? Retirement savings to ensure one’s children will not have to bear the burden of care in their twilight years? University reserves so that the children could be better educated in the future? The list only grows and grows.
Let us deliberate for a moment what Scripture says about what should be ‘given up’ and who should do the ‘giving up’. Ephesians 5:25 says that a husband should imitate Christ in the way Christ ‘gives Himself up’ for His bride, the church. Instead of a man considering what would satisfy himself, he needs to ‘give up’ his deepest self-gratifying desires in the best interest of his wife. Paul, writing to young pastor Timothy, teaches him that there are people in the church who exhibit behaviour that makes them worse than unbelievers. Many people would imagine a host of unconscionable characters for this list. In 1 Timothy 5:8 however, Paul makes it abundantly clear; ‘He who does not care for the needs of his own household is worse than an unbeliever.’
A man should use his strength, his drive, and his skill, to take dominion of the earth, not to see to it that all his desires are met, but to see that his family is provided for. The single man should not consider his single years as an opportunity for opulence. Rather, he should get far ahead of the curve so that he is better able to care of his future family or serve those around him, looking not to his own interests but to those of others Phil 2:4). This attitude will see African homes, communities, and nations rescued and revolutionised. This is the attitude that the Bible implores the Christian to adopt.
There is nothing inherently wrong with owning the latest iPhone, the latest microwave, or the latest hand drill. The principle is simply that you consider two P’s, your position in life and your priorities in life. As one financial specialist often says in relation to exercising the principle of delayed gratification, ‘live like no one else, and one day you’ll be able to live like no one else.’
Consider the example of 72-year-old Graeme Hebley, a New Zealand man who bought a used Toyota Corolla in 1993 and has driven it since, reaching a momentous milestone of 2,000,000 kilometers on the mileage (1,242,742 miles). That is a man who realises that life does not consist in the abundance of the the latest, greatest, biggest, and brightest. Christians would do well to remember that godliness with contentment is great gain.
And that’s it for The Africa Review in Five on this Tuesday, October 3rd in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe to the Missionary Minds podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I’m Paul Schlehlein. Be not weary in well-doing.