It’s been said that people who believe that money can’t by happiness don’t know where to shop.

That, or they’ve never seen the looks on the faces of little kids when they come down for Christmas. Or the ecstasy of a teen with a new iPhone. Or the smile of a spouse when they get a new car.

We understand that we were designed by God to enjoy material things, in the right way of course. The point though, is that there is a right way.

In Sunday’s Gospel Jesus warns us about the perils of greed, that it can lead to selfishness and ignorance of the plight of the needy. But more importantly Jesus opens us up to the possibilities of living more fulfilled and purposefully by longing for something else.

Mark Zuckerberg famously said about his company, Facebook, that, ‘we don’t help people connect more efficiently to make money, we make money to help people connect more efficiently.’ In other words, it’s not about the money, it’s about the mission.

And this seems to be what Jesus is saying – go ahead and have your new iPhone, but don’t let your new iPhone have you. It is a capricious and unfulfilling God (as all Verizon customers know…) and it will cause you to focus on the wrong thing and become less of the person you want to be.

So if it’s not about the money but the mission, how do you define your mission? If you can’t, what’s that mean? If you can, what’s it calling you to focus on right now?

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Reading

Robinson Crusoe – Daniel DaFoe

The Good of Affluence – John Schneider

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger – Ron Sider