麻豆约拍

Good Morning,

A recent series of American commercials for a cell phone network brilliantly illustrated common-sense values coming from the mouths of adorable children. One young girl explains to us why more is better: 鈥淲e want more, we want more,鈥� she says, 鈥測ou really like it, so you want more.鈥� It鈥檚 not complicated, the voiceover intones, more is better.

The commercial is delightful and guaranteed to bring a smile to our faces. Yet our unquestioning acceptance of such common sense ideas can make it difficult to find contentment. So much of our consumer culture depends on our accepting that we shouldn鈥檛 be content. Surely contentment is the vice of losers, not the virtue of winners. We should always strive for more. And, of course, there are plenty of opportunities to be freed from our money in order to get more of what we want. Better services, new technologies, personal advancement 鈥� few of these are bad in and of themselves. But without contentment we won鈥檛 find peace in the midst of the pressure to get more. The biblical book of James wisely warns us that coveting more can lead to quarrelling and even violence. We鈥檝e all had that experience of disliking, even hating, someone for no other reason than that they have something we don鈥檛.聽聽聽

Gracious and merciful God, free us from our constant striving to acquire more that we, and indeed the world, might find peace and rest. By your Spirit, teach us to be content and open our hearts to love others more than getting more for ourselves. In the name of Jesus, Amen.聽