Fellowship, Materialism, and Stuff.

Saturday night, several members (about 30 or so...maybe more) met at the home of my wife's boss and his wife (also members of our church) for some Christian fellowship, snacks, music, and fun. Our goal is to do this once month to help bring together church members outside the church to get to know each other a bit better. My family and I had a wonderful time. He boss is a very humble host. Success has not gone to his head.

That is one of the things I enjoy about our church. Most of its members are not caught up in the "looky at what I have" materialism that many Christian's are caught up in today. I am not saying we do not have our share of well-off members, but they are very giving of their time and resources. My wife's boss owns his own commerical roofing business and does very well. He just bought a new home and had a new pool / rock garden / patio put in his back yard. It is very nice, but he does not brag about it. He is a very humble man. That is just one example. I could give many more, but I do not want to dwell.

I used to be a materialistic type of person, which is ironic because I have been lower income most of my life. I grew out of it when God showed me that it is just "stuff". It is not valuable in the grand scheme of things. I have family members who struggle with two low paying jobs, kids and a mortgage but still fight to get that big screen TV, new vehicle, and other "stuff" because they think they need it. Me? I have been humbled to realize that the 7-8 year old, 27 inch TV is plenty for me and my family now, my two vehicles (my wife's van and my truck) are enough for us (and I will be scaling back the truck when the van is paid for...we keep one car payment at a time here...) and while we do have 2 cell phones, we do not have a home phone, so that is actually cheaper for us. We have learned what we need and what we don't. Yes, I have a broadband cable connection, but we use the internet a great deal. We shop, investigate, entertain ourselves, communicate, and educate ourselves with it, so we think that it is a wise choice to spend some of our money. A big house would be nice, but we do not need it. Ours is small (1650 sq ft), newer (6-7 years old), and brick with a garage. Not too much, but it is enough for us.