Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:15
“Contemporary culture is plagued by the passion to possess. The unreasoned boast abounds that the good life is found in accumulation, that “more is better.” Indeed, we often accept this notion without question, with the result that the lust for affluence in contemporary society has become psychotic: it has completely lost touch with reality…
Christian simplicity frees us from this modern mania. It brings sanity to our compulsive extravagance, and peace to our frantic spirit…It allows us to see material things for what they are–goods to enhance life, not to oppress it. People once again become more important than possessions. Simplicity enables us to live lives of integrity in the face of the terrible realities of our global village.”
Richard Foster in Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World (New York: HarperOne, 2005) 3.
One of the things my students are talking about is how the culture promotes messages that are the exact opposite of Christian simplicity. Like a plague, the passion to possess seeks to overtake us all. Let’s resolve together to give thanks for material things which enhance our lives, but rather than accumulate them, let’s pour God’s money into people.