It's Only Money!

For anything of real value in this world there's always a counterfeit. Something that has the appearance of the genuine article but is actually nothing but a cheap imitation. It may look, smell or even provide us with comparable performance in the short term but that's usually where the similarities end.

Money is kind of like that, many people often mistake it for love or happiness...

Can you imagine anyone purposely choosing a fake Rolex watch over a real one or a Cubic Zirconia over a real diamond? You might be unaware of it but most if not all of us do something very similar to that on a daily basis! It's evident in some very significant aspects of our lives, from the way we treat each other on a personal level to the corporate structures we patronize. When we purchase food's that have been commercially processed by large corporations we become part of an industry that has little or no respect for life, certainly not for the lives of the animals they inhumanely raise and slaughter or for the lives of the workers they hire for sub-standard wages to work in dangerous pesticide saturated environments and who not surprisingly also have no respect for us either! Is life sacred to you? From my perspective that's a simple yes or no question, and if the answer is yes then the truth of that belief should extend to all life regardless of whether it's born or unborn or walks on two feet or twenty!

Instead of approaching peoples health from a holistic perspective that takes into account the root sources of our maladies which are physical, spiritual and nutritional, we're a nation of people who'd rather choose a pill that only masks the problem by eliminating symptoms to some degree. We're willing participants in a system that disrespects us by seeing our health as a business with profit as the real objective. We'd rather pay the sometimes exorbitant monetary cost and expose ourselves to the possible side effects than do the real thing which no doubt would include us making some of the different food choices and lifestyle changes as well.

Nope, hunt-uh, no thanks!

As I thought about all of this I really struggled to understand why people,myself included, seem to be more comfortable with fake than they are with real...and this is what occurred to me. Maybe it's because before we'd be comfortable with real,which is respectful, caring and is based in ethics we'd have to insist on those same qualities in ourselves...We'd need to have a healthy self respect that wouldn't allow us to be a part of such a thing, or consider doing the unthinkable...caring about others more than ourselves! Give us just one reason to choose something less and we'll swoop down on it like no tomorrow which is smack dab on the doorstep of where this sort of unsustainable thinking has landed us.

We've chosen what we think makes economic sense, and on both a corporate and personal level we've gone with what will make us the biggest profit or save us the most money with not much thought being given to the long term consequences.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

I'm certainly not against people making a living and based on Paul's writing in the above verse I don't think he was either. It's placing money or the power it conveys above people, to love it, which is merely a representation of value more than we do others is to sow seeds of sadness into our own lives. What we've failed to understand is that it is truly "Only Money" and that someday, maybe even today, we'll live a life that reflects our accountability for the choices we've made.