The SoSA Perspective

Proper Lifestyle

I find people’s fascination with money fascinating. We operate as a society under the unwritten presupposition that you can’t have to much money. People who don’t have very much of the stuff are considered “poor”. People who have a great deal of the stuff are considered “successful”. And the “stuff” itself….. well, it costs us 10 cents to mint one nickel, if that tells you anything.

I personally think you can have too much money. The finer things in life (the ones that money can buy you at any rate) are, people tell me, addictive. Wouldn’t know myself. Although I will confess harboring a serious weakness for well made guitars. Aside from that I haven’t got much use for lots of money.

We started the ministry at Society of St. Andrew under the presupposition that the earth was a good thing provided for our use… (You ought to use what you need). We also assumed that the earth belonged to all of us collectively…… (you ought to share what you don’t need). Our final assumption was that we were managers, not owners of this God given gift. That means that we are expected to have enough sense to distinguish our needs from our wants. Given the advertising bozo’s ongoing efforts to convince us that every want we ever had (and some we didn’t even know we had) are actually “needs”, this is a fairly tall order.

I struggle with it every time I go past a music store. The demons of the dulcet tones reach out and grab me almost every time. Some days I’m strong and other days….. not so much. And so it goes. Good luck to you with your demons, and remember, it’s an advertising jungle out there.