Greed and Gratitude
At times, this whole business of liking cars makes greed way too easy. Here’s a case study: the used car lot down the street just listed a clean 1992 BMW 535i for sale. A four-door, five-speed, six-cylinder Bimmer sounds absolutely perfect. Let’s see, Wikipedia says it had 208 horsepower. No problem. That should be enough, especial- wait, a 1992 E34 DINAN M5 made 382 horsepower! Hey that would be… hold on, DINAN’s turbocharged E34 535i had 405 horsepower! And suddenly, only 405 horsepower will do.
Greed is problematic for a variety of reasons, from the obvious to the thought-provoking. Among other things, greed:
Assumes we don’t have all that we need
Implies we deserve something more or something else
Disregards what we already have
Devalues the intentional process between where we are and where we want to be
Rejects God’s provision and plan for our life
At first blush, the early church seemed to have rid itself of greedy people. In Acts, early Christ-followers were “one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had… from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:32-35) We don’t know how long they lived in harmony like this. Maybe a month. Maybe an hour. Because chapter five, just a few verses later, begins like this: “Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.” (Acts 5:1-2)
If you’re taking notes, this is what is referred to as lunacy. These people were part of a movement that believed an eternal God rescued us from the consequences of our failures and brokenness by sending his son to die in our place, and then raise him up from the dead. And they responded with, “Hey that’s cool but I’m saving a few bucks in case I need it for something important.” Lunacy. Ananias didn’t need the money. If he did, he could have asked (because money was distributed to “anyone as he had need”), or kept the land (use of “from time to time” suggests that not everyone immediately sold all their possessions and gave it to the church). Lunacy, again. He didn’t need it. He already decided to give it away. So why didn’t he give all of it?
The easiest silver bullet for greed is gratitude. Adopting an “attitude of gratitude” is good advice everywhere it’s offered, from 12-step tables to kindergarten classrooms. It would have helped ol’ Ananias and Sapphira. It was the lesson God taught the Israelites in the desert when he let manna spoil if it was kept more than one day (except for the day before the Sabbath). Be grateful for what you have and you won’t long as severely for what you don’t have.
So here’s a practical exercise for combating that grating feeling of wanting more of something, less of something, or something else entirely: find an area in your life that frustrates you. If you’re at all honest with yourself, this will not be difficult. Then, see how greed is at its center. Some things may not seem like they’re related to greed, so refer again to the bullet-pointed attributes of greed until the connection is obvious. If you’re stuck, consider these: politics, church politics, moles (in your yard), moles (on your body), aging, continuously variable transmissions… now find something in your arena of aggravation that you can 1) address as greed, and 2) be grateful to God for. Make it sincere. Here’s one for aging: Resentment toward aging is greed because it assumes I deserve the body and mind I used to have or should have had, but I can be grateful that God gave me breath in my lungs this morning and the ability to read about Him right now.
Gratitude in the realm of cars is helpful for a variety of reasons, from the obvious to the thought-provoking. It’s a fine hobby, but if it creates a foothold for greed in your heart, try a few forms of greed-slaying gratitude. Here’s just one, and say it out loud if you need to: “I can be grateful that BMW made some fine cars in the ‘90s, and the good people at DINAN utilized their God-given abilities to improve on them even further and I can read about them and look at lovely pictures of them.”
Okay, and “I can be very grateful that a mint E34 535i isn’t for sale nearby because it would be hard to say no to that even though I don’t need it.” Repeat after me: “I don’t need it.”
