Materialism – Sunday, September 11, 1983
Every morning is one of God’s best mornings for someone. But too often we don’t recognize it because we’re too busy counting our material possessions.
The mark of the successful man or woman is the car driven, the cut of the suit, the size of the house. We hope to make our children successful by the same empty standard, focusing on the clothes they wear, their external manners and appearance, the positions we hope they’ll occupy in life.
But the finest equipment is sometimes only a handicap, As Thoreau said, “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.1 In fact, the stuff which fills our lives can so distract us, there’s little energy left for the joys of the soul at all. How does one notice one of God’s best mornings when his heart is set upon an unpaid bill or an object he hopes to acquire? How can one respond to the seasons of the earth when his attention is only tied to the fiscal year? How does one develop sensitivity to another when the only strengths he counts are his costumes?
“Joy is not in things, it is in us,” said Wagner.2 The more we try to place our joy in things, the less we’ll find. If possessions become our aim, when do we have enough? If our days are fixed upon perfecting our physical environment, when do we finally get everything perfect? Meanwhile life has passed us by, and we wonder at the emptiness it left.
It need not be that way. As our society rushes toward materialism as the answer for all that ails us, we can be counterrevolutionaries. It will take a conscious decision and then perseverance, but it can be done. We can learn to do with less and rejoice in the agility it gives us. We can learn to count as gifts the sun and moon, the thoughtfulness of others, the amazing miracle of a newborn babe, the continual miracle of life in all its variety. We can work to develop our godliness instead of our bankbook.
1 As Quoted In Leaves of Gold. Lytle. Clyde Francis, ed., The Cosslett Publishing Company p. 149
2 Ibid p 148
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September 11, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,821