Money, get away Get a good job with more pay and you're okay

I've been think quite a bit about human nature lately. We are a dirty, evil, pleasure-driven, covetous lot aren't we? People (especially in the U.S. and other developed nations) get caught in these loops of need for more. We get a car so we can drive to work to pay for our car? We work at these jobs enabling us to buy things that in turn makes us keep working to pay for them. We have this constant lust for more more more and it is sickening to see the levels of excess desired in our times.

I work at a private country club and all day long I talk to members and many of them I get to know on a pretty personal level. Many have claimed to have faith and be "Christians" but in my eyes (not that it is my place to judge, I leave that to God) I struggle to see how a person could be given sooooo much and not be more thankful for it. Those who are thankful could, instead of buying a new beamer or paying 350 every month to golf eight weekends out of the year, spend their money helping others. I won't give examples because that would restrict the thoughts of where money could be used.

It's a challenge trying to explain to people how the "American Dream" and true Christian faith do not run parallel with each other. We have been commanded to: "visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27) Jesus himself said,  "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24) Now it can be argued that how can one properly define wealth? Some might say it is when your money makes you enough money to live but that is an inaccurate portrayal of wealth in my eyes due to extremes in living standards. A man in Somalia would be wealthy if he made $10,000 dollars a year. Here in the states ten grand is far, far below the poverty line. Even the poor here have cable and a cell phone. Here is how Jesus looks at it-

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." ¹⁴But he said to him,  "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" ¹⁵And he said to them,  "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."¹⁶And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully,¹⁷and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'¹⁸And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' ²⁰But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' ²¹So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
(Luke 12: 13-21)

I'll leave this to you for contemplation but I'll finish with the words of Tony Campolo-

"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night."