Why loving people makes me less materialistic…
Dec 15th, 2009 by ljkim
Or “why we don’t have a big flat screen TV…” Or live in a luxury building with doormen, or spend a lot on transportation or expensive vacations, etc… Not that there’s anything wrong with those things… But we can afford more of those things than we have – so we choose to do with less. This has been good for us financially because it means we have more money for emergencies and surprises that come our way, and that makes it easier to live and GIVE and not think about money too much. But those are side-benefits, they weren’t the main reasons… The real reason became clear to us when God taught us to actually start caring about people.
Normal people like nice things (nothing wrong with that), get the nicest things they can afford (sometimes a problem), and like to show people what they have. Jesus’ people like nice things too, but love God and people even more than stuff…
So here’s why loving people made me less materialistic… Two reasons.
First, the things we do without, are things we don’t really need. There are people who kinda’ need a doorman building – because of their age, or maybe they live alone or keep odd hours and need the services a full service building provides. But we (Grace and I) don’t.
The second reason has to do with whether it’s something that would make people envious…
God gave us some stuff (we’re not richy-rich, but we have everything we want). Some of our friends have a bit less than us in the financial area at the moment… (And when they’re wealthier, we’ll probably meet more friends who are just starting out and have less…) I feel like it would be a smack in the face of God, to use the GIFTS and blessing He’s given and allow it to make other people envious… To make them think “Yeah, I want that.” To allow God’s blessing to make dear friends less content with what they have – and lust after (even the tiniest bit) something that’s not important…
Does that make sense?
So there’s nothing wrong with the car you drive, the place where you live, the tv on your wall…but here’s the thing: people are selling themselves into credit-card slavery for these things… But we have to find a way to enjoy nice things without harming those God loves – or giving people (or your own heart) the wrong message.
[I know this opens up a lot of questions - so feel free to ask me about this! Such as, "dude, you ride a nice motorcycle, how does that fit with what you're saying?" - I'll be happy to talk about it!]
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Agreed.