Decorations

Verses: Matthew 6:25-26
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Devotion
Why not be materialistic? Why not eat the most delicious food this world has to offer? Why not have the perfect body? Why not gather belongings? Why not aim for a better job title? Why not stockpile money?

Definitely not now, but in the past when I was a worse person, I did a lot of things to decorate myself as a form of insulation. Decorate myself with a nice car to insulate myself from criticism about driving a beater. Decorate myself with nice clothes to insulate myself from appearing poor or shabby. Decorate myself with a nice house to enjoy the good life and have a spot for all the extra stuff I wanted to accumulate, so that I could decorate my life with more stuff to feel safe in case of problems. Lots of decorations, mostly with the intent to keep myself safe from areas I’m vulnerable to critique and of feeling less than ideal.

Materialism has so many good aspects about it that unless you are careful, it’s super easy to convince yourself that it’s actually a good thing. Don’t you say to yourself, “it’s good to save some extra money so that I’m ready for retirement?” And don’t you convince yourself that working harder for that promotion is good because it’ll set your family up for a better life? And don’t you convince yourself that it’s ok to spend that hard-earned money on some things that make you feel better?

The danger in materialism is that many of these are good things. It’s good to provide for your family and plan for the future. It’s good to prepare yourself for emergencies. The problem is when you try to do these things on your own, or to avoid tender areas of your psyche.

I see materialism as a slight directional issue. Some directions are more obviously wrong. You know when you’re going the opposite direction of what you should be oriented towards. You’re much further down the wrong road by the time you notice if you’re only a little bit directionally wrong, like it is with materialism. Maybe it takes a decade or two to realize you invested your time, energy, and resources too far into your work, or bad relationships, or perhaps even your own self-improvement. These are the insidious errors that are much harder to recognize and correct.

What Jesus is saying here isn’t that we can’t be smart and prudent stewards of our lives, just that we aren’t supposed to be relying on ourselves and trying to avoid pain through retail therapy. He’s supposed to be what we rely on and lean into.

Author: Jordan Ambra