satisfied

Feeling satisfied with what I have is not a popular goal in our culture. We are definitely the bigger, better, faster people. That is unsettling enough, but all too often we are not planning to work harder to bet bigger, better and faster, but instead we resent folks who have what we want and we want what they have without considering how hard they work to get or maintain what they have.

It is practically the first rule of our culture that it is appropriate and reasonable to want what ever we want, even when getting it causes pain and damage to others. Sometimes we even take things we don't want so someone else doesn't get to keep them.

Can we even imagine a community where people chose a different path? What if we respected one another's contributions? What if we asked someone who has more if they would mentor us? What if we consider that God has given us all we can handle without getting into a wicked mess? (Think about the many consequences for folks who have won a sizable lottery or inherited too much money too young?)

So maybe God was truly wise and looking out for us when God wrote that Commandment that says: “You must not want to take your neighbor’s house. You must not want his wife. And you must not want his men and women servants or his cattle or his donkeys. You must not want to take anything that belongs to another person.” Exodus 20:17