JOHN DEMPSTER: Shopping, consumerism and God and the 'talisman of hope' in the school bag

At lunchtime on my first day at secondary school I went to Woolworths (remember Woolworths?) and bought a cheap plastic Pluto dog. I knew instinctively that I wanted the Disney character not so much for itself, but as a symbol of the childhood security I felt was slipping away for ever.

I remembered this when reflecting on a powerful sentence from writer Sophronia Scott: “Any consumer purchase requires something of head and heart, not just my wallet, and needs spiritual consideration.” It’s a call to self-awareness as we walk the supermarket aisles, or scroll the shopping website.

Shopping holds so many challenges. Seeking God’s grace to transmute trolley-rage to grace as slow-moving shoppers get in my way. Acknowledging ethical issues – “How well paid was the person who made this?”, “How many air miles has this avocado covered?” Pausing to reflect how utterly fortunate I am to have money for food; how unjust it is that so many struggle to cover everyday costs.

And don’t get me started on that word “consumer”! We are not “consumers”, cogs in the wheel of an economic system comprised of workers, consumers, and those who enrich themselves through the process. We are people, looking to one another’s gifts, skills and creativity, and ultimately to God for the meeting of our needs. Rant over!

But Sophronia Scott urges us to go a bit deeper. By purchasing Pluto in Woolworths, I was popping in my schoolbag a talisman of hope as I returned to the intimidating school building. Contemplating a purchase, we ask: “Why do I want this?” As we reflect, we may realise that we are looking to the product to give us a sense of identity, to make ourselves other than what we are, to feed an addiction, to feel part of a group, to anaesthetise us from pain, to fill a yawning black hole of inner emptiness.

But purchases are ineffective substitutes for the only thing which will satisfy our hearts: the knowledge that we are precious, that we are OK, that we are loved. Above all, that knowledge without which it is impossible to experience the love of others – the knowledge that we are loveable.

Like that 12-year-old, I still catch myself contemplating medicating insecurity through another purchase, even though I know it will be ineffective. But then I remember that I am secure in the love of others and ultimately in the love of God.

And that knowledge sets me free to rejoice in God’s goodness and love, God’s provision, God’s economy of grace. “Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

And again I see these frazzled shoppers with big trolleys as people, not consumers; as God’s beloved ones.

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