Materialism is an attitude towards life. It is an attitude that either controls and dictates our lives or one in which we have the control and final say. It is often a misconception that only the wealthy can afford to jump on the bandwagon of materialism. Materialism can indeed affect the bourgeois and even the poor. This attitude towards life is shaped by a string of factors such as advertisements, commercialism, the media and even your peers. This attitude stamps from the very root of the human desire to want more for personal glorification and indulgence rather than need and the herding instinct in all of us.
People work harder or some even trade monetary incentives with grades with their parents just so to attend to the intrinsic human desires of want and belonging to. Sometimes we get to enjoy the things that we have. However, such enjoyment are but only momentary and of a fleeting moment. When the initial thrill of the moment passes and the sense of realism kicks in, what then are the feelings you have? Would it still be the same initial sentiments of joy and pleasure or regret, remorse or the want for more. When you try too hard to belong to a group and demands change according to the wants of a selected few in that group, do you still follow or do you take a stand.
In the biblical sense, when materialism becomes the key thrust of your life and your faith and trust in God is of secondary importance, it becomes a worrying sight as your spiritual relationship with God is twisted and compromised. With all the blessings that God has given you, and more of it you want, will you spend the same, or more or less time with God upon receiving His blessings?
There is a line to be drawn and that line is a line of satisfaction and contentment with what you have. It is natural for people to want to dream, just like Martin Luther King. Yet, at what price does your dream come? Not every want becomes a reality. Some wants are just for that split second of a moment for indulgence and lost thereafter. Some wants are to spur us to work towards a goal or a dream if you may call it. But these goals and dreams are pragmatic ones which do not thread on the line of personal glorification. Some wants are just in the eyes of others, a pure waste of money.
When is enough enough?
---till later---
