Living in Moderation

God has been teaching me this week - one of those lessons where he knows I'm not going to listen the first time, and so He keeps it coming from all directions until I open my eyes to it. Here is the meat of the lesson:

"The advertising industry of the USA is banking a billion dollars a year on a singular belief: they can convince you that you are not yet satisfied. You "need" a new car. You "need" a new house. You "need" some new furniture. Your children "need" the newest electronics. In a very literal sense, it is their business to perpetuate in you a spirit of dissatisfaction. If you ever realize that you are satisfied, they lose big bucks." (Beth Moore)

I studied the life of King Solomon this week, the perfect example of someone who "had it all" and found only emptiness. If you get a chance, read his story in Ecclesiastes. Some very powerful, raw and honest emotions are recorded there in his pursuit for happiness. It's amazing that life hasn't changed all that much thousands of years later.

"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

My spirit has been fighting this feeling of "insatiability" for some time, I just didn't realize it. This week I finally have been granted the gift of clarity. I don't need any more stuff. I not only have all that I need, I have way more than I need. I heard a program once on the idea that we live in a world of starvation and saturation - there are those with nothing, and those with everything, and very few people in between.

My mom told me of a friend who wanted to know just how many clothes she had, and so decided she wouldn't wear anything twice until she had gone through her entire wardrobe. 40 days she made it. This, too, is one of the excesses in my life. I certainly don't need all that I have, and somehow I even still manage to go out and buy more! I fall prey to the "need" for another sweater, pair of pants, skirt.

Enough is enough! It's time for a radical change, for that is the change that truly stays with you.

I am beginning a purge. There are many things I have and don't need, of which someone else may be in great need. I have decided to hold a "Free garage sale". I don't need to profit off of others' needs. I no longer need these things, and so I want to freely give of them.

I am buying less. I am putting the advertisers on notice: I am satisfied! I don't need another gizmo, gadget, electronic.

I am ridding myself of clutter. I am losing the fat. I am putting out the excess. I am breaking the chains of bondage that tell me I need more. God has always taken care of me - why do I feel the need to take that burden on myself? All things are His to give and His to take, but never mine to pursue. I will find contentment in the life I have been freely given - because I have every reason to feel joy with the blessings I have.