Topical Tuesday 28 - Nice Things

I visit some websites that run special deals for certain items over the course of a few days. Depending on the day, you could find deals on clothing, toys, luggage, watches, jewelry and sunglasses. Deal, though, is a somewhat relative term. Instead of paying $80 for a pair of jeans, you might be able to spend $40; or you could get a $120 pair of sunglasses for $70. In a case like that, you could save yourself 50% on something reasonably priced. However, I was looking at some watches yesterday, and I could have bought a $2,800 watch for $1,399. That’s still 50% off but not much of a deal.

I was telling Alycia how someday it would be nice to be able to just buy a watch like that, to see a good deal on a really nice watch, and throw down $1,500 to purchase it. I like watches and I like sunglasses and I wouldn’t mind having really nice watches and sunglasses. Alycia is a much better person than me, though, and she said she’d much rather spend that money on something like a well for people without access to clean water. If I ever did but a $1,500 watch, every time I wore it, I would be reminded that I spent a large sum of money on myself instead of thinking about others first.

Looking around my apartment, I realize that there are a lot of reminders that I spent money on myself instead of thinking about others first. I’ve got books, video game systems, movies, sunglasses, watches, shoes and more clothes than necessary. How can I reconcile having nice things when so many in the world go without the basic and necessary things?

Is it wrong to have a nice watch?

Is it wrong to have a big TV?

Is it wrong to have a cool pair of shoes?

This whole year I have been wrestling with the desire I have to buy stuff. I like buying stuff; it’s so much fun. If I could, I would spend all of my money on shoes, watches and sunglasses. This year I have been curtailing that desire in order to live within a budget and have some financial peace in my marriage. However, curtailing the desire doesn’t mean the desire is gone; I still want nice things and I don’t know if that’s wrong.

It’s all rather moot at this point, though, because simplicity has been forced upon Alycia and me; all the desire in the world doesn’t mean I’m going to get a $1,500 watch or even a $150 watch. Maybe God will use this season to show me how to live simply and enjoy it, allowing me to live simply even when it isn’t a matter of necessity. Maybe God will be so productive and effective with this season, that by the end I’ll want a well in Africa more than a $1,500 watch. At this point, though, I’d take wanting them the same.

How do you reconcile having nice things when so many in the world go without basic and necessary things?