AHA!

AHA!! I've found another (in addition to Piper) who has stated the context of the "American Dream" better than I!:

The Way of Christ:
There is nothing equivalent in Paul to the American idea of "the pursuit of happiness" as a life preoccupation. Paul almost never uses the conventional Greek language for happiness, words such as eudaimonia (happiness, well-being), hilarotes (cheerfulness), makaria (happiness, bliss, blessedness), olbos (happiness), euphrosyne (good cheer), and their cognates. He does speak frequently of chara (joy, happiness) and chairein (rejoicing), words that express a specific kind of happiness from God.

More significantly, Paul does not define the purpose of a human life as happiness (or joy or self-fulfillment), even though he attaches joy to teh pursuit of a human being's right purpose: there is a joy that comes from faith (Phil. 1:25). Some Pauline contrasts to the notion of life as a pursuit of happiness are the following: "to those who by patiently doing good work seek glory and honor and immortality, [God] will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking...there will be wrath and fury" (Rom 2:7-8); "Do not seek your own advantage but that of the other" (1 Cor 10:24); "Since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church" (1 Cor 14:12); "Love does not seek its own interests" (1 Cor. 13:5, my translation); "Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others" (Phil. 2:4); "So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for teh good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith" (Gal. 6:10). These formulations show that for Paul the purpose of a human life is eternal life pursued through obedience to God, who calls us to live for others. There is an element of self-interest here, as shown by Rom 2:7 and the other promises and warnings in Paul that appeal to human self-interest. But the pursuit of one's own interest is tied to teh interests of others, which are to be paramount. Christians are to make love their aim (1 Cor. 14:1) and in so doing "fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). Or, to put it another way, salvation is the purpose of a human life, and salvation is a process that has conformity to Christ's self-giving way at its heart (Phil. 2:1-13)

Christ's way is the "law of Christ" for Christians, Christ himself the paradigm of the moral life. Paul's letters offer three decisive clues to teh nature of Christ's life as a rule for us. In Romans 15 Paul says of jesus that "he did not please himself" (v. 3). In 2 Corinthians 8 Paul says that Jesus "became poor" so that his followers "might become rich" (v. 9). In Gal. 2:20 he describes Christ as the one "who loved me and gave himself for me." Each of these descriptions characterizes Christ as exemplifying sacrificial love.

The problem of connecting Paul's eschatology with American life lies primarily with the competing religious and secular forms of what might be called American "realized eschatology." By American realized eschatology I mean the perception that this worldly bodily comfort, economic well-being, and the various freedoms now enjoyed by the majority of Americans are in some way a fulfillment of biblical eschatology, literally or by analogy.

The achievement of so much general human comfort in contemporary American society and our quasi-religious affirmation of comfort have two effects: they alienate us from Paul's understanding of Christian hope at the same tiem that they encourage us to see our comfort as divine blessing. Christian interpretations of American prosperity have often led to teh judgment that God has graced us and affirmed us in our presperity, security, and leisure.

In America today, earthly existence is not, for most people, the painful physical trial it was for many of our ancestors and for humankind through most of history. Viewed in terms of Christian eschatology, American bodily comfort and well-being are seen as a present sample of heavenly happiness. Moreover, the suppression of death in our culture fits with American religious views of the transition from life to afterlife as a kind of seamless passage, a continuity from present life to more and better of the same, not a release fro mlifelong suffering.

Paul's letters offer little foothold for the view that American material bounty and comfort are a divine blessing. For Paul, God's blessing for life in this age is the Spirit. The present realization of future glory is often a hiddenness of glory in suffering. And even though Paul teaches his churches to care for material needs, he sees the purpose of a human life as lying beyond the material, beyond this world, beyond all bodily life as we know it." Charles H. Cosgrove, Paul and American Individualism pp. 100-102

There's more good stuff about suffering and hope, but who reads this anyways...

So why do I know sooo many people who are simply living for a better job, to earn more money, to buy more toys (cars, skis, North Face and Marmot), for more leisure and vacation? We go to church and feel christian. Is there more? What I mean is, I feel like a lot of us settle into the concept of "whew! Made it on the j-train. Now back to the good life." How often am I out with friends and I accidentally interrupt them trying to tell someone about Jesus? How often do I run into someone trying to get to know me with the opportunity to respond "You're a Christian too! Awesome."