In general, someone addicted is
someone who was physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance,
and unable to stop taking it without incurring adverse effects. When we are
addicted we will not be able to say “no” towards something, especially
materialistic things. One of the most obvious materialistic things is money
since it has been addiction to many people even since the antiquity period;
moreover, the word “money” was mentioned for around 2350 times in the Bible.
Beside the Kingdom of God, the idea or topic of money is often used by Jesus in
many of his parables. This shows how important and significant money is to the
people back then.
Most of the people in the world
today are materialistic where they put materials as their priority, especially
in terms of money, fame, and pride. Being rich and famous can be considered as
a dream or a wish to everyone with a sane mind since those people have a
mindset and think that money could buy everything; therefore, many of those
people become addicted to materials and keep on pursuing for it without being
satisfied with what they have. When materials have become a priority for them,
they would no longer prioritize God in their life thinking that God is not
important. In fact, materials is could not solve everything. Two clear things
that material could not guarantee is having peace in life and going to heaven
after life. One of the examples of such case is Steve Jobs who were the CEO of
the Macintosh Corporation. He works so hard throughout his life to beat
Microsoft in the world of technology for the sake of his pride, obviously. To
pursue such materialistic dream, he spent his whole life working very hard
without experiencing peace until God, through his health problem, decided to
end his life. Although he made a big leap and advancement in the world of
technology, he still didn't have peace until the moment he died considering
that he have not beat Microsoft.
We should realize that if we set
materials as our priority and goal, we will never experience peace in our life
since we will never be satisfied with what we have until our last moment. On
the other hand, when we put our satisfaction on God, He will fill us with His
peace throughout our life. There was a Christian man who was suffering cancer
throughout his life, even until he died; however, this man maintains a good
relation with Jesus throughout His life. He admits that he could enjoy his life
and experience peace although he has to stay in bed almost his entire life.
Through this story we can understand that if we put our focus on God, He will
give us peace at all-time despite of the circumstances that we're facing in
life.
As a personal application, I
often focus myself to materialistic things. I really wish that I could one day
become rich and famous. As I was discussing about wealth with my mother, she
always said that we should always set a limit, but I disagree to her statement.
I think that if there should be no limit for opportunities to become richer
such that we should always try to gain profit at any cost. Now I realized that
I have the same mindset with Steve Jobs where we will work at any cost for the
sake of achieving our materialistic dream. That way, I will never be able to
experience peace in my life; therefore, I should change my mindset setting God
as a priority for me because, in fact, God is the most valuable thing for me
since He could help me overcome any problem and give me peace throughout my
life.
As a conclusion, addiction to materialism
has been very common to the human civilization since the era of antiquity. Many
people set materialistic things such as wealth, fame, or pride as their focus
in life that they would pursue them at any cost; however, they didn't realize
that they will not be able to experience peace when pursuing for materials
since they will never be satisfied with what they have. On the other hand, when
we focus our life to God, He will fill our life with His peace despite of our
circumstances in life. Gandhi once said that earth provides enough to satisfy
every man's need, but not every man's greed. It's saying that greedy human who
focus on material will never feel sufficient.