Money on my mind

One thing I am realizing this month is that money is often on my mind. Alyssa wrote about impulse spending a couple posts ago. I echo her struggle in wanting to buy things just because we have the ability. When if comes to buying things, we often ask ourselves "why not" instead of "why." We can use and manipulate both approaches to feed addiction to things, but I think the former is particularly complicated. When we ask "why not" we are assuming that we should have a certain item, our disposition is one that focuses on our lack of something. When we switch our disposition to asking "why", we can think deeper about the things we buy. "Why" makes us think: Do we need this item? Am I really going to use it? Is this REALLY going to make my life better/more enjoyable? Does this thing help me love others? Does this usage of my money glorify God?

At least once a day this week I have thought about an item I wanted or thought I needed: getting more music, sports equipment, books, motorcycle, surf/paddle board, a dog (we just lost one), things for our deck, even buying a house (a long way away). The desire for all of these things occupied my mind and time. Some of these things are mostly wishful thinking at this point in life (i.e house) and it isn't wrong to have fiscal responsibility and consider saving for large purchases. But none of these items are necessary or very important to life right now, yet they occupy the space in which the more important things could be.

I believe that God is hospitable in His relationship with us. He is not forceful, we have the ability to choose, He waits on us ("I stand at the door and knock" Rev 3:20), we have the option to make space for him. One view of evil is that it is the absence of God. Perhaps we should re-think what the Christian scriptures mean when it says, "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim 6:10). Money isn't just currency - that negates the reality of bartering which is what currency is based on -, money is status symbols, goods, items, etc. The love money includes the love of those things we buy and the love of the desire to buy and accumulate. When we love things, we don't leave space for God and He is thus absent.

One of the stuggles I often have in my spiritual life is making time for God. We often get caught up in the busyness of the life we create and push God off to the side. Some of the busyness comes from our overcommitment and our hyper-active, overstimulated American culture, however there is a busyness interwoven with our addiction to buying and keeping up with material things More insidious is the mental busyness that comes from our "a desire to have." Our minds and hearts become saturated with wanting things and we forget to want God. It is not just that we over consume or overspend, we are over-concerned with wanting and loving material things. This mindset is unfortunately, normalized within our culture and the human existence. And the overconcern detracts from what should be our ultimate concern (God). The overconcern with things is the distraction the Christ is alluding to when he says, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19: 23 - 24).

I don't believe the solution to our addiction to things and wanting things is found, solely, in fervently maintaining a morning or evening quiet time. Those are both important disciplines within the Christian life, but something more is necessary in addressing our excessive impulsive and normalized material desires. We have to be cognizant of our desires and then take the effort to refocus them. This type of simplicity is a spiritual practice because it is not about having or not having things, but our disposition towards what we have and desire.

We need to be aware when we think about the material things we want and try to refocus on our desire for God: for His wisdom, for holiness, for Shalom, for restoration and reconciliation, for the already/not yet Kingdom of God. Those are the things I wish to occupy my mind, heart, and actions.