Consumed

Americans; we’re hungry. There is no other way to put it. We hunt for the next new product to buy. We live for the next time a new blockbuster movie comes out. We wait in line for hours hoping to get our hands on the next video game system. “Fourteen million Americans use illegal drugs, twelve million Americans are heavy drinkers, and sixty million are hooked on tobacco. And Five million can’t stop gambling away income and savings. And at least ten million can’t stop buying more stuff”.

We’re constantly searching for something to fill us up, something to help us feel more complete. We are all born with an inherent need for something, but we don’t necessarily understand what it is. Material things will never fill this void. No matter how much entertainment we exalt or food we eat, these things can never replace the things that we really lack. Love, hope, faith, and passion are all powerful values that cannot be bought. As we continue to play with our unlimited stock of stuff, our emotional lives have been slowly slipping away from us.

Where’s the flame that burned in us when we were children? The fire that drove us to attain an abundance of goals has been dimmed to a small candle that glows just strong enough to get us thought the day. The flame of ambition burned so bright when we were children. A child accomplishes more in it’s first few years of life than it does in it’s last fifty years. It learns to crawl, but is not satisfied. It immediately sets a new goal for itself, walking. Once it takes it’s first few steps, it falls, picks itself up, and tries again. Older, more mature people don’t do this. Some just settle for what they have and never even try for something better.

Others try to accomplish something greater, but when they fall, they lay on the ground, waiting for someone else to pick them up. Children have the ability to see things for what they are. They’re not naïve; they just look at the world with their eyes open. They haven’t been influenced or manipulated yet, so life is clearer. At a certain point in our growing up, the world tells us that we need to conform to society’s way of thinking. So aspirations turn into mere daydreams and higher ambitions are replaced by simple goals, like buying a new television set. We’re so distracted by all the electronic noise in the culture that we don’t strive for anything better. We quit growing. We quit trying. It’s just easier to sulk in our pits of despair.