Black Friday

It is barely past 7:00 AM and I just returned from dropping off my son Evan at the football locker room. (They are headed to Lucas Oil Stadium for practice in the dome for tomorrow's state 5A championship game.) On the way to the school I noticed the Target parking lot. Still dark, before 7:00 AM and there were cars parked out to the street.  Mind you this is a time of economic crisis, a near depression, the dow is down, foreign markets are down, everything is down. Well, all the stuff that is supposed to be up is down, and the stuff that needs to be down is up; such as unemployment. A credit crisis is threatening the housing market. People are losing their homes.  The big three of the auto industry are about to fold. And yet in the predawn hours of this Black Friday we Americans are rushing to the stores, fighting the crowds, filling our carts, and loading up our credit cards. Maybe I am just hung over from to much turkey and pumpkin pie, but does this not seem ridiculous to anyone else?  Do we not get it? Has our insatiable desire for material possessions stolen our brains? The advertising agencies have convinced us that we need, no, absolutely must have more stuff. Our clothes, though in perfectly wearable condition, are hopelessly out of style... we simply must have a new wardrobe. Our electronic gadgetry is antiquated, at almost a year and a half old it is amazing it works at all, we must have the latest and greatest. And don't forget our toys, we deserve, cannot live without, our toys. When one considers the standard of living in most of the rest of the world, and then sees the gluttonous materialism of America, it is no wonder many in the world hate us. It is also no wonder that our economy is spiraling out of control. We must realize that stuff, no matter how new and improved, can never bring true and sustained satisfaction. We must return to the truth that satisfaction can only be found in a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. The Scriptures say "godliness with contentment is great gain." God help us not to bankrupt ourselves searching for the satisfaction we crave in the materialistic stuff they advertise.