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Written by Gloria Diliberto
The choices of the past were much more limited. But with all our modern materialistic options, are we being pulled away from what is truly important?
In the not-too-distant past people didn’t have a whole lot of choices. You were either part of the elite or you weren’t. You were born into power and therefore luxury, or you were born a peasant. There wasn’t a whole lot of autonomy as you were born into your station in life.
Even if you were one of the “lucky” few families with land and wealth, luxury was something completely different from today’s standards. If you study history, you will find that even the kings and queens of old did not have the luxuries most of us in the Western world take for granted today.
There was no electricity or any of the modern conveniences and gadgets. Even something as basic as household running water was not common until late in the 1800s. Cars were not mass-produced in America until the early 1900s. People lived very simply and ate what they could grow or purchase in their region alone.
New options, new “needs”
Now we can purchase items from anywhere! We can go any place in the world we choose in a day or less. The Internet and technology changed everything. The world is at our fingertips, and we are increasingly led to believe we “need” this item or that in order to be happy.
But do we? Instead of technology making our lives easier, we have become busier and busier. How much time do we spend in a day striving to “get ahead” instead of thinking or doing what is really important?
Bombarded with commercials
If you browse the Internet, listen to the radio or turn on the TV, you are continually bombarded with ads and commercials for items you don’t need but are being told you should want or you should buy for someone else.
Many of these commercials play on our feelings in order to make us think we have to have the item in order to be happy or fulfilled. However, in order to obtain all these things you must work longer hours, get a better job and make more money.
These things are fleeting or disposable or they wear out or something new and better is created so you “must” soon replace them. And the cycle continues endlessly. I have lived this life, and no doubt you have too.
Coming to clarity
There were many times during that period when I thought, “Is this it? Will I never get out of this unending cycle? Is there no other way?” Then one day I had an epiphany. I was the one doing this to myself! I was choosing to be a part of this massive commercial scheme.
This idea that we all have to live the same way, have the same things or try to have more than the next person—it was my choice! I was the one who was choosing what was important in my life. I could choose to be a part of it or not. I wasn’t being forced to live this way; I just didn’t realize there was a choice up until then.
It’s like Solomon wrote: “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
Looking to the future
Now I understand these commercials and wants for what they are—distractions designed to turn us away, even for a few minutes, from what is really important. Distractions that tempt us and snare us and destroy our contentment (1 Timothy 6:7-10). Distractions that take us away from Bible study and prayer so we get so caught up in our daily lives and our striving to get ahead that our relationship with God gets lost in the mix.
My epiphany didn’t immediately change me. However, I really started to think about the choices I was making and how I ultimately wanted to live my life. What was important to me? I slowly started to simplify things so I could have more time for what was really important.
That doesn’t mean that now my life is perfect. It’s not; I still struggle on a daily basis with what I should be doing versus what my mind is saying I want to do. But at least I am now more conscious of the choices I am making, and often I can stop myself and say, “Wait a minute! Is that how you want to live your life?”
Gloria Diliberto lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, on a small, off-the-grid ranch with her husband. She is a mother and grandmother who enjoys hunting, horseback riding and crocheting in her spare time.
For more about materialism, contentment and godly priorities, see:
