Thankful Or Greedy?

23 Nov

“Black Friday:  because only in America do people trample each other for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.”  ~ Unknown

Today is a day that never made much sense to me.  For as many years as I can remember, I have intentionally stayed off of the roads and not gone shopping on Black Friday.  This is the day when people seem to be at their rudest, if that is possible.  Lines form quite early at all sorts of stores as people wait for the store’s opening so that they can rush the employees, grab for items, and get into fights over what is available.

The stores, in my opinion, feed into this frenzy as well because they advertise some items at ridiculously low prices and all those people in line know that the store only has a few of those items available.  Once those few items sell out, the rest of the people standing in line are out of luck.  Hence the fights.

This day just seems to exemplify greed to me, greed in it highest form.  So many people live their lives “not having enough”.  They feel that they have to go out for more because they are unfulfilled.  I will tell you something: those people will always be unfulfilled because they are trying to fill their lives with possessions.  Possessions will never satisfy a soul.  Oh, they may make a person happy for a while but, sooner or later, they will lose their glamour and then the people will focus upon something else that they “absolutely must have.”

The only thing that we absolutely must have is God.  If we possess a good prayer life that is feeding a good spiritual life, we will need nothing more.  We may appreciate the earthly things that come our way; however, we will not fight over them as if we absolutely need them.  We know that those possessions are of the realm of this earth and count for nothing in the Kingdom.

I saw a cartoon yesterday of a family sitting around a Thanksgiving table preparing to eat their meal.  The young daughter said, “Why aren’t we this thankful every day?”  That is a question to ponder.  If heaven is our goal and our relationship with God is of primary concern, we would be thankful people every day.  Let us do our best to be thankful to God for His blessings every day of our lives.

FAITH ACTION:  Pray for those who feel that they need objects to fulfill their lives, that they may turn to God to fill their hearts.