“Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
“Image is everything!” says Andre as he touts the advantages of a certain camera. Teens get the message and they buy into that mentality, but then so do their parents. Marketing today utilizes the power of the media in convincing us that to be the good mom, the successful businessman, the savvy working woman, the cool kid, you’ve got to be outfitted with the top-of-the line clothes, down to the tiniest accessory, so you project the Image. (Yes, the word is capitalized!)
And what is the Image? It’s the key to success, the door to opportunity, and the pizzazz that impresses friends and gives you acceptance with your peers. Being different is the death sentence that leads to obscurity. So, what do we do? We buy, we buy, and we buy more. “We receive 3,000 marketing messages every day,” says Jane Hammerslough in a released book which she calls Dematerializing: Taming the Power of Possessions. She says our values are upended. The result is we have more and enjoy it less. But the more that we have is gotten at the cost of tremendous indebtedness. Credit card debt is at an all-time high, and the sickness leaps across oceans and mountains, and in the name of advancement, takes more and more people captive.
The real issue is not providing for what you need. It is accepting what you are told repeatedly that what you have is insufficient. That you really need to upgrade your wardrobe, to buy the new SUV, to have the Coach briefcase because all successful businesspeople carry them. So, we shove the overburdened clothes rack a bit tighter and add to the perfectly legitimate clothes bought last year and worn only a few times, because nothing succeeds like the projected image of success.
That human nature never really changes is evident by what was said 2000 years ago, which fixes the problem facing us today—the overwhelming materialism that has consumed us. And what is it? Consider these words. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Jesus used two words which bear scrutiny and application. The first is to watch. It means keep your eyes open. The second word translated “be on your guard” is a military word. Two thoughts are behind this word. First is the idea of guarding what you already have lest someone take it from you, and the second is the realization that an enemy is outside your gate and you really, really need to protect yourself.
The enemy is unending materialism, the mentality that more is better, and that if you don’t buy freely, you are going to suffer emotional deprivation and loss. It’s time to wake up and realize that what counts in life cannot be bought or acquired. We need to learn that more is not always better and that greed is a contagious virus that destroys what counts. Ken Taylor paraphrased the words of Jesus, saying, “Beware! Don’t always be wishing for what you don’t have.” Good advice.
When you get tired of the unending ads on television and the slick beautiful ads in magazines and posters that tell you, you must have something, you are then in a position to challenge the affluence of the day, putting your foot down as Jesus said you must, and retreat to the life of simplicity.
Before you buy into the Image, ask three simple questions: “Do I need it? Do I have a place to put it?” and “Can I afford it?” Unless you get three yes answers, you may be doing the wrong thing. Don’t forget it.
Resource reading: Luke 12.
