Black Friday

Black Friday. It sounds so ominous--until you hear the commercials. Then it sounds so promising. It's built on the premises and promises of consumerism. The market has to get you to want something you don't need, offer it to at a seductively "low" price, and connect to your drive for happiness in order to get you to spend money you don't have to buy stuff for which you have no room.

What do you give the person who has everything? A gift certificate to a local self-storage unit and a pad lock. I'm surprised more stores haven't thought of that angle. Buy, buy, buy. It's the only way you can convince the people you love that you truly love them and the people you envy that you are just as good as they are.

Things do not create happiness. They may stir it in the heart for a moment or perhaps for a longer time, but eventually everything new losses its attractiveness. It stops being shiny or it losses its "new" smell. A newer model is introduced and we are seduced into believing that because it is new, it is better. The instant we take the bait the old thing no longer satisfies.

I'm not opposed to shopping or getting bargains. Sometimes, it's just good stewardship. What I'm more concerned with is the motive. Why are we doing the things we are doing? Why do we feel the need to get more? What's really at stake? Would we be better served by skipping the sales?

I like stuff--especially the "new" stuff. I like playing with it until it loses its newness. When that happens, I'm ready for some new stuff. I blame Saturday morning cartoons and the slick advertising that turned me into a consumer. If I look at it more honestly, I know advertisements didn't make me want stuff. I wanted "stuff" long before I ever saw a commercial. The commercials just taught me what stuff to want.

Human beings are born with a covetous heart. We want what we want. We want what we don't have. We want what other people have. We want more of what we have. Apart from Christ, satisfaction is hard to find.

So no matter how you spent your Black Friday, I hope you are content in Christ. I hope your desire for him grows each day, until it fills you. May God fill you with his fullness. God bless.