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“We live in a society where we are assaulted by messages that urge us to consume and accumulate.”

A thought by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson, (2011-07-19) in their book, Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You´ve Only Heard About (Kindle locations 713-714). Thomas Nelson. Kindle edition.

I walk the mall every morning and I’m excited about the fact that we mall walkers are going to get our mall back in another week.  I mean I got to the mall a little after 7:00 am the day after Christmas and Macy’s and J. C. Penny’s were open and I had to go to the second floor in the parking garage to get a good parking spot.  We just need so much more stuff even after Christmas don’t we?  At least that is what we are told.

Now I gave over 10 bags of clothes, coats and shoes to the Bowery Mission in New York City this Advent season.  If I listened to the advertisers I needed to run out fast and get more stuff to take its place but I didn’t and I’m doing fine.  If we as Christians would go into our closets and take all the excess clothing in there then we could take care of the clothing needs of the homeless.  Let’s quit buying and start giving.  That would make a great difference in our personal lives.

I lived in a new home in Las Vegas, Nevada that had huge closets.  I now live in a home on Long Island, in New York that was built in the 40’s.  You ought to see how small our closets are.  It was a different world back then.  They didn’t seem to need as much space for all their stuff.  We make so much more money but we have to in order to get all the stuff that we are told we need. 

I wonder, do we really need all of that stuff to make us happy?  I wonder? I really wonder?

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