“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” — Jesus (Luke 12:15, NIV)

Many years ago Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929) said: “While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries.

The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.”

Intellectualism can be and often is a defence against facing one’s reality. . .or against accepting the fact that we are responsible to one another and to God! If we intellectualize or rationalize away God then we can believe we are only ultimately responsible to ourselves. In so doing we harden our hearts against truth.

Materialism is often the symptom of buried emotions, especially the emotion of wonder. Instead of finding fulfillment in the wonder and beauty of creation and nature, and appreciating the wonderful benefits that Christianity has provided us, we get wrapped up in things. As the saying goes, instead of loving people and using things we end up unhappily loving things and using people. Another dangerous way to live.

By Dick Innes, Daily Encounter www.actsweb.org/detoday . Used by permission.