As any secular psychologist and sociologist will tell you, the average person definitely does not reassess their daily and lifetime priorities. Harvard psychologist Dr. Susan David notes that during this time of quarantine and forced introspection, many people recognize their priorities and values have been petty. During our daily humdrum lives:

What happens is we become hooked into an autopilot mode of living … with all of our habits and our routines. Often, we’re very impacted by social contagion; so, you know, someone else gets a promotion, we want to get a promotion. Someone else wants to drive a particular car – that whole experience of “living up to the Joneses” … [And with] all the things that we’ve got to do, we just don’t have the opportunity to actually be with ourselves, to be with our difficult emotions and to use those emotions.

Market researcher Alex Quicho believes the pandemic will cause many to not be so mesmerized by luxury goods. In a survey on post-pandemic spending: “Sixty-one per cent of survey respondents said they cancelled or cut back on luxury spending during the pandemic because their time in self-isolation reconfigured their relationship to things like luxury.” A surprising 21% said they would continue to do this well after the pandemic is over.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sincere and devoted Christians should and do reassess our daily and lifetime priorities because we realize that we are strangers and pilgrims here (1 Pet. 2:11). We are longing for a better country (Heb. 11:16; Heb. 13:14)

Source:

Adrienne Matei, “Our post-pandemic selves: why the virus is an opportunity to grow and develop” The Guardian (4-6-20)