It doesn't matter how much we buy, there is always plenty more that I want

A friend passed along a great article in christianitytoday.com about living in a material world. The article was about a young lady who thought she would be satisfied with "just a house". After getting married and getting "just a house" she started asking herself if she could be satisfied with "just any old house" and she quickly realized NO. The article goes on to say that she quickly realized that she was a person who was not easily satisfied. Her story says that desire started to take over her and she realized that "just any old house" was not going to satisfy her now or ever for that matter. She says "I'm very much a part of the never-enough world and then states chances are so are you". Are you?

Isn't that what has happened to us in society today? Materialism is preached so much it becomes who we are. If material things provide the answers to life's basic questions in your world like "what am I worth", "am I successful", "do I have peace of mind", this is a serious disconnect. Ask yourself right now "who says?" Who says that having material things make me successful? Who says that having peace of mind is when I have stuff?

I love what this article reminds us. That God did not create us to be materialistic. He created us to be relational beings. When we start replacing relationships with materials things we have a void. The void that we continue to trick ourselves into believing is missing more stuff. The fact is the void is we are missing relationships with people. The article quotes "There will never be enough material things to satisfy the longings of the human soul."

Don't get me wrong, God does not care if we have material things. He does however care when we replace the "love of stuff" with the love of others.

Here are some questions to ponder as the writer in the article suggests:

What do I expect out of life and where do those expectations come from? What is success and do I tend to measure it by outward trappings? How much of myself am I giving to my loved ones and how much am I relying on expensive gifts (for birthdays or Christmas, for example) to communicate love? What is the real source of the emptiness or drivenness I feel?