Do We Need That Stuff???

This morning at church, the message was on consumerism. Not a message you'd expect to hear, but definitely a relevant one and one that really spoke to me. As I have just moved towns, I don't have a lot of stuff. I have the basics, enough to live on. My house is definitely not FULL though. As I have slowly been removing boxes and putting things away, I have some empty spaces in my house. I was beginning to think of things I could put in those spaces to fill my house up a bit. But this message at church made me realise how silly that was.

Consumerism is all about getting more stuff to make us happy. The truth of the matter is that stuff doesn't actually make us happy! It doesn't fill our lives and make us feel satisfied and whole. I've never met a person who has said "I'm so glad my house is full of stuff. It really makes me happy." We fill our houses and lives with things we thought we needed but then have barely used and all they have done is clutter things up. Do we actually need this stuff? Do we need a bigger TV? Do we need another console? Do we need the latest version of Mario Kart or the latest smartphone? I have to ask myself what my motivation is for buying things. Am I buying it simply to fill an empty space in my house, or is it something that will really fulfil my life?

The Bible teaches us that the essence of God is relationship. We are created in His image and that means that we are created for relationship. We were designed to relate to God. STUFF doesn't allow us to relate to God. It just gets in the way. So before you buy a new ipad or the latest ipod touch, ask yourself if you really need it or if it is just going to get in the way of your relationship with God. I know that's what I'm going to start doing!