I’m wondering what satisfaction she would have received if she would have had sod installed, painted walls, and all of the nuances of the house of her dreams. Sod doesn’t do anything for a person. Paint doesn’t either. (Although, the psychological critic might argue that colors affect moods…irrelevant.) What I’m getting at–and I think you were too–is that the trendy, tidy, professional, shiek, hip, yuppie material does nothing more for its owner than its generic competitors. I take that back. It does create increased responsibility and a heightened sense of awareness of the safety (or lack thereof) of the material.

What this young lady doesn’t realize, I presume, is that she wants those things, not for herself, but for others. And it is not so that others might benefit from these things, but so that others will see the “true” status of who she is. This creates, again, new responsibility to maintain, upkeep and upgrade the material. It invokes either a response of jealousy, equality or superiority of other like-minded observers. If it is jealousy, she feels superior, but has to protect her material. If it is equality, then she feels mediocre. If it is superiority, then the inverse reaction is that she feels inferior. It’s a lose-lose-lose.

Jesus’ view of money/material in Scripture has been like a huge mallet, hitting me over and over again since I entered seminary. I feel inhibited to wear the clothes from my pre-seminary days when I go out, because I may be mistaken as “wealthy.” That is not a good thing to be mistaken as in some neighborhoods. But those observe us are judging us. The litmus test of who we are is, sadly, our material. How our culture has bewitched us!

Talk about a toxin! We are what we wear. We are what we drive. We are where we live and what we live in. We are what church we attend. We are what school district our kids are in. On and on it goes…like me on this blog.

I tried to do the old Dr. Phil thing, to ask, “How’s that working for you?”

Great point!