Right now, we are in Malaysia. Spend any time in Asia, and you can’t miss how everything’s charging ahead—Progress with a capital ‚P‘. Building cranes dominate the skyline as new projects thrive, the food and fashion scenes are prominent, designer brands find their spot, neon signs light up the night sky —it’s all next level. At Kuala Lumpur airport, I spotted this sign in the women’s bathroom: "If you have an accident, let someone else clean it up." Big, bold red letters right above the sinks. At first, I just thought, “Classic Asia. Service is everything here.” Then I realized—it was actually an advertisement for a local insurance company. Ha! Got me good.
This same prosperity push was, and perhaps still is, a thing in the church. It blew up in the '80s, riding on the Word of Faith movement with big-name evangelists like Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. I remember tuning in to Creflo Dollar on TV show, Changing Your World, on a daily basis for a few years. He was one of the go-to guys for this prosperity stuff. His message? God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and thriving. If you nailed the "right" faith moves, prayed just so, and were super generous, you'd unlock those blessings. Material and especially financial success is seen by many as a sign of divine favour. Don't settle for less than what God wants to bless you with was the vibe.
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Maybe I needed to dabble with the gospel of prosperity in order to even out my poverty mentality, somehow like gold sharpening hessian.
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I needed to wrestle with the idea of wealth. I brought into the faith a tendency to believe that people with money were toxic to my faith walk. I was a Mother Teresa lover, and it didnt compute that Christians could be wealthy. It just didn't seem to add up. I was seriously affronted by the message of the prosperity gospel. It reeked of triumphalism. ‘We got this’. To have everything under control is the drug of the developed world, and the prosperity themes of those Christians seem to tie into that. Scriptures like ‘I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength’ were often featured in my faith circles. I preferred the call to surrender all!
This has been part of my journey. I hope I have found a balance. I still find suffering somehow spiritually alluring, if that’s the right word.