Nothing To Celebrate?
Jean-Jacques Guiony, CFO of French luxury multinational LVMH supplier of fine wines, says that champagne sales are down because people are too sad about the state of the world to celebrate. Guiony said, “Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of champagne.” With prices seemingly up for everything else, champagne prices are down 20% over the past two years and sales continue to drop.
Is that why? I don’t know…people’s taste buds do change.
But it’s also true the sadness index in developed countries is up and happiness is down, based on whatever benchmarks researchers use to measure it. Though I must confess, I tend to take those subjective statistics with a grain of salt.
Yet, it makes sense. The West has lost its way. Morality cannot even be defined anymore in most circles. God has been booted from public life and even the most religious countries have bailed on church.
If I did not believe in God and felt like there was little purpose for life beyond what can be enjoyed in the here and now, I’d have trouble celebrating as well. For most of the world, their celebration is only a distraction from the emptiness inside that gnaws at them. That kind of meaningless celebration gets old.
People yearn for purpose.
It was that longing that grabbed my soul when I was 17 years old. Colossians 1:16 reads, “All things have been created through Him and for Him.”
Once I came to understand that my purpose was not about me but my Creator, and that my life was given to me so that I could live for Him, everything changed. I went from a dispirited teenager to one filled with joy. I had a reason to be alive!
Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
The thief is the devil, the evil one, Satan. He has blinded this world and left it devoid of direction, purpose, a moral compass, and God.
When’s the last time you saw a family praying together on TV or seeking the Lord in a movie? The thief has worked hard to convince people that normal life can be lived without God (as seen in our media influences). So, right and wrong are now a matter of opinion. God is mocked and His ways are derided in the public arena.
But we wonder why depression and suicide continue to rise.
This world desperately needs Jesus. He came to give you the abundant life…and that life lasts forever.
You don’t need bubbly to distract you from a life lived for Jesus. You can celebrate with genuine joy when you really know Him!