St John Cassian talks to us today about greed in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that Judas started off robbing the bag that the disciples kept their money in. Then it escalated. And finally, he sold out the savior of the world for thirty pieces of silver.
Greed slowly takes hold of our lives, doesn't it. We can be going along in our lives, totally content with what God has given us. Then we see it. Maybe it's in a TV commercial. Maybe our friend has one. Maybe we hear about it on the radio. And suddenly ... we HAVE TO HAVE ONE.
As many of you know, I'm a technophile. I love gadgets, and I'm an early adopter. So when some new gadget comes along, I usually want to try it out. There have been many times that I'll start to buy something, and I feel a check. I feel like God is saying, "Hang on there." So I usually walk away. I don't buy it right away. I "sleep on it", and forget about it for awhile. I often find that when I come back to it a couple weeks later, I'm not so keen on having one. The desire has passed.
This is probably a good practice for any new thing that comes along. New job offer? Pray about it... give it a little time. If they have to have an answer RIGHT NOW, then the answer is usually no. One of the ways that our enemy traps us is by giving us the pressure that we have to do the thing RIGHT NOW. When it's in God's will, He patiently waits for our response.
So let's respond to the possibilities in our lives with patience. God knows what He's doing. If it's the right answer, it will still be the right answer a few days from now.
God, thanks for teaching us that patience can be the best answer to the temptation of greed.
1 comment:
So very true
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