What we want

As a society, we all concentrate on what we want or better yet, even deserve. We feel entitled to everything under the sun because we are told that life is all about doing or discovering whatever it is that makes us the happiest.  Self-realization. We vainly look for fulfillment in ourselves, our possessions, and maybe even our relationships. This is the American dream. We go to college to get the perfect degree to get either the six-figure salary or the career that makes us the happiest, so that we have the money to buy all possessions that entertain us and make everybody around us jealous. We think we deserve the world and all it has to offer because life is all about me.

 

What seems lost in this pursuit of fortune is two-fold. The first being everything we have, we only have because it has been given by God.

Ecclesiastes 5:19:"As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God."

With this in mind, it should also be noted that what wealth and riches we do accrue in this life cannot go with us when we go.

1 Timothy 6:7:" For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out."

When these two things are forgotten, we begin to place our security and trust in our money and possessions. Once this trust begins to take place, there can never be enough to be satisfied. We are then compelled to cheat other people or the system, lie, even steal. This can be summed up in one word. Greediness. This is why we are exhorted not to covet in the Ten Commandments, and why the Apostle Paul tells Timothy

 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Tim. 6:9-10

 I will get to the last part of this verse in another post, but for now, let me just finish with a couple more thoughts. Desiring a good career and a comfortable life is not necessarily wrong, but when money and comforts become our main drive or incentive, it never stops, until nothing else matters, and all the time is spent worshipping this god called money. This causes us to completely forget anybody else.