{"id":3225,"date":"2015-02-05T14:22:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T19:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionofman.org\/?p=3225"},"modified":"2017-08-22T20:16:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T02:16:26","slug":"learned-materialism-car-tires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revolutionofman.org\/learned-materialism-car-tires\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned about materialism from car tires"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Kathryn and I owned a beautiful SUV<\/strong>. It was truly a work of precision German engineering. It was the top of the line<\/em> of ‘top-of-the-line’ SUVs containing all the ‘bells and whistles’ one could possibly imagine in a fine motor car. It was stunning and impressive. The darn thing was expensive. The warranty expired and we learned that maintenance was darn expensive as well. The ‘special’ run-flat tires could not be rotated. They had to be replaced (usually two at a time). The tires alone cost $650 each and had to be replaced about every 10,000-12,000 miles. Do the math. That’s $2600 per year in tires! As a special bonus, we had the privilege of replacing a cracked wheel at the low-low cost of $900. In one year, we spent over $3500 on tires and wheels. Oh yeah, did I tell you that it was beautiful, stunning and impressive?\u00a0 You can learn something from car tires.<\/p>\n

Materialism requires maintenance<\/strong>
\nHere’s the lesson that you should take away from my foolishness. If you place any of your personal self-worth on the stuff you buy, get ready to spin your wheels and work your arse off to maintain it. I don’t care if you have millions or billions, if you place your ANY of your self-worth<\/em><\/strong> on the stuff you can accumulate in life, you will live in a cycle of maintenance.\u00a0 Take if from me, I’m a recovering materialist!<\/p>\n

Everything we buy ends up in a trash heap somewhere.<\/strong> That expensive SUV we owned will eventually end up a rusted hunk of junk in a junk yard. That expensive home will eventually be torn down. All the stuff that we buy to impress others and\/or make us feel better will eventually decay in some hole in the ground.<\/p>\n

The material isn’t the problem, ‘Materialism’ is<\/strong>
\nOwning nice stuff is not the problem. The problem is when we tie our value to the stuff we own. When we love stuff and our capacity to attain more stuff more than we love God and people, we have exchanged that which is priceless for something with a price tag. Stuff can become an idol. Eventually, we run the risk of allowing that idol to rule over us and we eventually end up in bondage. The stuff owns us.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen too many people end up with a pile of really expensive junk and massive bank accounts only to spend their last days completely alone in the pit of regret. They don’t even have anyone to share the regret with except those who they hire to maintain their stuff while they die alone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to get caught up in the nasty cycle of Materialism! Ponder this…<\/strong><\/p>\n