Materialism
Sending Kristin (a member of HC) off to Africa yesterday got me thinking about the trip I took in 2007 to the Ivory Coast. This country in West Africa was my first mission trip and at the time of my visit it was engaged in a civil war. I was nervous about going but I felt the Lord was leading so I followed.
One thing that I was not prepared for was how poverty-stricken the people were. This firsthand experience made me aware of how materialistic American followers of Christ are. It was an incredible lesson that I was not expecting to learn. This week I want us to discuss materialism.
materialism |məˈti(ə)rēəˌlizəm|
noun
1 a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.
Most of us would say. “Well, I don’t value possessions over spiritual matters!” But when we look at where we invest our time, talent, and money we immediately notice that it tells the tale of what we value. We love stuff and we love to spend time on our stuff. It is difficult to live in such a wealthy society and not get caught up in materialism. Jesus said:
NIV Matthew 6:124 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
According to Jesus its one or the other. The first step toward overcoming materialism is believing that God can and will do something extraordinary through ordinary people like us. Look for someone who crosses your path today that you can love for Christ. I am not talking about someone who is lazy and will not help themselves. I mean someone who is in a situation in which they cannot help themselves. Invest some of your love into their lives. We are the Body of Christ and God can do something extraordinary through us! Take a look around and tell me what you see.
Great post Jimmy! The internal struggle over what we value be it earthly or heavenly treasure is a battle I think we all must wage daily. When we forget that this struggle is ongoing we become complacent and begin to do what gives us immediate pleasure. We love our stuff! At least I know I do. When my wife and I looked at financial cutbacks recently we decided cable amongst other things had to go. To my surprise, this made me very uncomfortable. I love me some espn and history channel as it turns out. What I have found though is that the things didn’t really matter. I don’t even miss cable anymore. It was just part of a routine I had become comfortable with. The result though has given my wife and I back invaluable time with our 6 month old daughter. Instead of spending our free hours as mindless zombies in front of the all-mighty television,we are enjoying more time together as a family. We have also found more time to spend with our parents/relatives/friends. This means more time out in the world attempting though still failing to be what Christ modeled to us.
Oh yeah T.V. is not evil by the way, it is how we use it and how much we use it that is dangerous.
Good stuff Charlow!
I totally agree that materialism can be harmful, I think everything has to be taken in good measure. Ecclesiastes says: “I know that nothing is better than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of his labor- it is the gift of God.” So I think there’s a balance point- God doesn’t want us to strive and toil to the detriment of our spirit or relationships, but he expects us to be good stewards of our gifts…. that is my understanding….