Success that will Last

Veblen's quote, to me,  essentially shows that our value in today's society is determined by the things that we stock up or have the best of.  While this seems shallow, unfortunately, we are the ones who have created this a standard of measuring one's worth.  To evaluate this, I'd like to trace the motives for such behavior back to where they were born.  I feel that our desire to accumulate material things comes from a lack of appreciation for one's inner self.  We feel empty inside because we don't possess all of the good qualities that we would like to.  So, to fill the void, we purchase things to dissolve our unhappiness and drown the areas in which we fall short because that is just the easiest thing to do.  We are too lazy to try to change ourselves into better people, so we buy things to increase our outward status and conceal our inward shortcomings.  If you have the latest gadgets and wear the latest fashion, you are somehow envied even if you are not a very nice person.


The consequences of these warped definitions of success are not difficult to discover.  I am sure anyone can say that the more things one has, the more static one's happiness remains.  In severe cases, one may even become more unhappy because he or she eventually realizes that the money spent has only created clutter.  It is so easy to fall into the trap of consumption.  No one wants to be viewed by other people as unstylish or not cool enough.  But, as Christians, we must remember that Jesus was never the popular one.  Ironically, He has surpassed perfection.  Going by His example, we can see that people's views have nothing to do with our true worth.  Nothing we buy is going to come with us to heaven; if we cannot let go of those things, then we cannot go either.  God is the only one who is able to rightfully pass judgment on us.  His standards are the only ones we should be eager to achieve because His standards are truly attainable...His standards never change.