365 WORDS...ONE WORD AT A TIME...JUNE IS AN AWESOME MONTH!

Sometimes it disturbs me how MATERIALISTIC people are. I am not to be judgmental therefore I often have to pray when I am faced with situations I can't avoid and I don't want to say anything that might be confrontational. What makes some so compassionate for others and others so selfish and full of greed? Maybe in countries where we are bombarded with store ads on television and in our mailboxes, we can't help but be somewhat MATERIALISTIC. In essence, we are our stuff! Having lost everything except a few small items in a backpack and the clothes on my back, I came to learn the hard way..."stuff" can vanish in an instant. In less than a millisecond it can be gone. I don't know if I was MATERIALISTIC then or not...after all I had walked away from most of my "stuff" willingly. I took only what I treasured to my new place. When I lost it all, perhaps it was a test just to see if I was MATERIALISTIC or not. If it was a test, by God's grace, I passed. He restored everything and then some. About a year after I had lost everything, God even gave me opportunities to purchase many of the things again. I would find them in the most uncanny places, placed, so it seemed anyway, just for me to find them. Except for a book, the one I wrote about in a past blog, I did not purchase any of those things. I don't even know why I made that choice, but in doing that, God blessed me over and above what I ever had to begin with. He gave me double for my trouble! Was it easy? I can't say that the wait was easy. I had to take the less traveled road to my blessing. Was it worth it? You bet it was! When I encounter people who are MATERIALISTIC what I think about is those who don't have shoes, much less 40-50 pairs. Or have one or two changes of clothing that they have to wash them by hand outside, or sit on the ground or have one plastic chair, while others change clothing and furniture in a whole room every time they see a new style or color they like better. I feel sad for MATERIALISTIC people really. They don't know the joy of being a steward of the things God gives to us or allows us to have. In conversations with those less fortunate they don't know how to be sensitive to their lack. Everything we go through, God has a purpose and will use it for our good and to help others. I am grateful for the things I have gone through. Now I am a better person for those struggles.