And they are free from materialism—
They laugh at nine-to-five little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the West was won.
Do we even understand what it means to be free from materialism? We live in a privileged society where we are constantly being told what is important. Bigger TVs, smaller computers, smoother skin, better job, louder entertainment… the list goes on. Our world has a system, and this system is built on MORE. We are like rats running through a maze, searching for the cheese that we hope is just around the next bend.
It will take a radical new dream to defeat the system.
God is looking for people who are unimpressed with the best the world has to offer. Sure, we can enjoy it, but we need to be able to equally enjoy life minus all the “good stuff.” We must learn to say with Paul:
“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
(Philippians 4:11-12)
Contentment. If we can discover the secret of contentment like Paul did, we can go anywhere and do anything, and be able to focus on God and others instead of ourselves.
Go to Thailand, sleep on the ground, not shower for a week, and eat God only knows what? No problem. Hang out with homeless people in LA? Can do. NOT spend money on a new wardrobe/car/computer and instead give the money to a cause that matters? Absolutely. Sell everything we own and move to the Tenderloin, the worst part of San Francisco? Why not? When we cut our dependency on the material things of this world, we become available for God to use us anywhere and however he wants.
And he might use us in the more elite realms. Some of us are called to be performers, athletes, businessmen, and politicians and might end up surrounded by some of the markers of wealth. So what? Increased resources are a blessing, and no more so than when they are used to bless others. We are not of this world and we are not defined by or dependent on our stuff, but instead we hold everything with an open hand and give freely.
Everything we own is just a prop anyway, like cheap plastic jewelry worn on Broadway. What’s the use of holding on to it?
We need to become a generation that rises above the system. This is our Matrix; the world that flashes around us is not the real world. The real world lies beyond the skin of this one, unseen. It is only when we grasp this truth that we can laugh at the nine-to-five cycles and refuse to be rodents running on a wheel or chasing that ever-elusive cheese. We need to catch a higher vision.
Only then can freedom begin.