‘Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one.’ Ben Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the USA.
Photo: Tearfund.
We live in a culture obsessed with money. Despite the fact that we all know how consumerism only ever delivers a temporary buzz, we keep on getting caught up in a set of values that simply fail to deliver on the freedom they promise. In other words, we know it won’t do us any good, but we keep on coming back for more.
While the slogans tell us that we are ‘born to shop’, that we should ‘obey your thirst’ simply ‘because you’re worth it’, something’s not quite right. All the cars, houses, holidays, designer clothes, trainers, mobile phones, iPods, entertainment systems, computers etc… simply cannot give us the security and significance we all need. Yet consumerism continually pulls us along, continually barks in our face, getting under our feet like a yappy dog. Like all yappy dogs, consumerism never goes away, never gives up until it finally realises you have nothing left to give. Then the pooch goes off in search of a new victim.
Before we move on, take a little time to consider the following questions:
- Who do you consider to be rich people in our world?
- Are they rich because they are richer than you?
- Are you rich?
- What criteria do we use to define how rich someone is?
- How much is enough?
Want to know what God thinks? Click here to connect to His attitude to money.