Homo Accipiens
Homo economicus. The term bubbles up from one of the books I’ve read or lectures I’ve heard over the past fifty years. This morning I woke up early, rolled out of bed, and traded money for my morning coffee at Starbucks. Clouds are rolling in from the Gulf, roiling with collected moisture and punctuated by an occasional lighting bolt. My attention had been diverted from my long list of morning tasks by a tightening in my chest. No specific task triggered it, just a feeling. I’m disconnected, lost.
It means economic man, one whose rational self-interest enables him to maximize material wealth. After decades of attempting to increase my income, I’ve come to see the futility of chasing after success as defined by material wealth. Habit, however, makes money-grubbing behavior seem natural.
I felt disconnected from my morning work, though it had been productive. I had nothing to regret since it aligned with my spiritual and material priorities. But I was doing it alone. I’d been living as homo economicus—out of sync with my values.
I had started the day reading the first chapter in the ancient book of Lamentations. It was written after the nation of Israel suffered total economic collapse, military defeat, and a near annihilation of their cultural identity. Something in the heavy gray morning resonated with lament. But our cultural preoccupation with efficiency forces sadness into a corner where we must deal with it quickly and privately so we can return to our real task of economic value creation.
Given that profound input, it should have been easy to adjust my outlook. Why hadn’t I lifted my eyes from the material? Here I was several hours into my day of writing and strategic thinking, and I hadn’t seen it as an opportunity to connect with the personal, eternal God. I can start now. I’ll connect with God as the one who makes life worth living. As Brother Lawrence said nearly four hundred years ago, “I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.” I’m not sure I can match his standard, but I can try.
Today, I reject homo economicus and all it entails. Christian faith demands it. As I reflect on my anxiety-driven performance this morning, I remember another, more profound quotation. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17, ESV) Since this is true, my life should be a signpost pointing away from our meritocratic striving toward the good heavenly Father who delights to give his earthly children good gifts that meet their deepest needs.
Homo accipiens. - the receiving man.
That’s better, I thought, looking at the word. Coining a Latin term to counter homo economicus makes the dominant ideology less imposing.
I am in daily need of breath, food, shelter, and most of all, a sense of value and meaning. Ultimately, I cannot be the real source of any of those things, only the Creator can give a contingent, but loved and even cherished, creature like me exactly what it needs. Today, I can reject performance, show up to my responsibilities, and know that success, when it comes, comes as a gift from my Good heavenly Father, and not as a result of clever grasping and scheming.
