Me the materialist

Submitted by David on Sat, 2006-10-28 22:48

Materialism is an easy trap to get into. It's amazing how difficult it is to avoid excessive attachment to possessions. I don't like throwing a whole lot of money at things like vehicles, but at the same time with stuff like books I seem to be pretty good at spending money. I've managed to hold purchases from online bookstores for a (shortish) while now, but I still seem to be getting my hands on more of these things. For example, last night when at Bethel URC, I purchased a copy of John Frame's No Other God which deals with the topic of open theism. I've also got copies of a couple of other books in PDF, awaiting review.

I still haven't gotten around to attempting repair to my laptop yet, but am wondering if I should just go and buy a new one instead. My existing laptop is now over 3 years of age, and considering the field that I'm in computers are something that I use quite a lot. One of my siblings pointed out the Dell XPS M1210 a couple of days ago, and I'm thinking that I might go and purchase one of those. Since they first mentioned it, Dell has made some modifications to the model, but it seems to fit fairly well what I'm looking for. (If Google is telling the truth this laptop should also possess fairly good driver support for Linux). Yet, at the same time, I wonder if this is a little too much to be spending.

Comments

Sarennah

Sun, 2006-10-29 01:23

On a positive note, the books you do buy are religious and not meant for 'frittering your time away'. I heard of someone once who said they would never read fiction because there was so much to learn from non-fiction books out there. I disagree with that-- fiction can teach you a lot about grand themes. For that matter, people learn best in stories I think.

And on that rambling note...
I know what you mean about feeling like a materialist. I feel bad buying clothing in stores, when I know the price of a pair of jeans in Canada would buy so much more in a third world country. :( Things are just more expensive here.

David

Sun, 2006-10-29 15:49

I might buy reasonable books, but if I don't get around to actually reading through them it seems a misallocation of resources. (That said, I still do have more of an opportunity to lend books to others though).

The whole issue of economics is also rather interesting when applied to theological matters. This morning's sermon was actually delivered by Brian Clarke (campus minister for RUF at the University of Alberta). Running a ministry in North America is more expensive than it might cost to run the same ministry in many other places in the world, yet at the same time to if we fail to minister locally as well, then we're missing something.