More means that we have something in greater amount. It is like those word problems we encountered in math: If Susie has 5 apples and Jimmy has two apples, who has more apples? And of course, Susie has more apples than Jimmy. We are geared in this country to want more. We are a lot like Tim Allen’s character on Tool Time who always wanted more power for any power tool he had. Which if you are familiar with the show, his quest for more power was not always in his best interest. It did make for some funny situations. Fortunately, with power tools, they can be turned off. It is much harder to turn off our desire for more.
In life, we strive to better ourselves in different ways. We attend college or technical schools because we want to learn more about the career path we are interested. We sometimes go on for a Master’s degree or even a PhD as we continue to learn more about our field. For those in the tech fields, you may choose to move from being an Apprentice to a Journeyman to a Master to a Contractor in your field. Or maybe we work hard, or even harder as we earn more and more money in order to purchase bigger cars or houses or whatever. But we seem to have an inclination to strive for more. But more comes with more.
What do I mean by that? Well, when you have a bigger house, you have more to clean and maintain. When you have a more expensive car, it costs more to keep up. When you have more stuff there is more to fix and repair. There is even more time needed in order to use the more stuff you have. And at some point in time, it can get overwhelming. So, the question becomes: When is enough, enough?
For each of us that answer will be different. But that answer will be predicated on our level of contentment. Being contented doesn’t mean we still don’t want certain things in our life, but it does mean we can be content with a smaller house, a less expensive car, or even just less of the stuff we once thought we had to have. It is the concept behind the simplify movement. It is also very good for our environment as we take care of what we have instead of replacing it. We purchase quality over quantity so it will last and not fill up our already full landfills. We stop impulse buying. In fact, what we do is move to be more thoughtful in how we live our life. We, hopefully, get to a place where we recognize that stuff is not satisfying but relationships are. With that in mind we are able to put what is important in its proper perspective and realize that more is not always better.
While I can’t speak for any of you and what you may want in your lives, I can speak for me. What I know I want in my life is more peace, more love, more joy, more happiness, more time with friends, more…well what do you know, not one of the things I have listed has anything to do with stuff.
Peace,
Pastor Beth
Beth's Blog 