New Reminders: Materialism
by Ardith Hoff
Amazon is now the biggest delivery business in America having overtaken FedEx in 2020 and UPS in 2022. They delivered approximately 5.9 billion packages in 2023––roughly 18 “presents” for every single American. Wall Street Journal, 11/28/23, p.A1.
The convenience of ordering with your phone or home computer and the quick turnaround, makes it unbelievably easy to order and receive packages without leaving home. In fact, on-line shopping is blamed for driving out many mom-and-pop small businesses. Amazon’s “free shipping” has made catalog sales, that require additional shipping charges, very unpopular. Of course, the membership fee to shop at Amazon adds cost to the products, but it does not feel like it if you use the service often. In fact, it is added incentive to buy more things from Amazon. Having more things creates the need for storage units, which conveniently can be ordered from Amazon.
In his book The High Price of Materialism (which ironically can be ordered on Amazon) Tim Kesser explains materialism. He wrote that, “Materialism is about values and desire for money, possessions and the like. Compulsive consumption is when a person feels unable to control the desire to consume, often because the person is trying to fill some emptiness or overcome anxiety." The book goes on to explain how materialism and consumerism undermine our quality of life.
Most of us do not consider ourselves compulsive consumers, but with the advent of easy shopping, some of us might come closer than we think. We end up accumulating more than we realize until it causes problems we have to confront. Maybe we start to have trouble paying off our credit cards, or we have trouble finding room for all the things we have. If instead, we stop and consider all the good we could do with the money we spend on things we don’t need, we might shift our whole value system toward giving rather than getting and having.
In Matthew 6:19-34 Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Laying up treasures in heaven simply means doing what we can to make the world a better place by doing the things Jesus told us to do––feed the hungry, clothe the destitute, and shelter the homeless. Hebrews 13:16 sums up this way: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”