«Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart» (Acts 2:46).
STUDIES CARRIED OUT at Georgia’s Emory University in the United States have demonstrated that consumerism is addictive When we buy a product whose acquisition we have anticipated, our brain releases a chemical substance called dopamine that immediately makes us feel good. That feeling of immediate reward generates addiction and leads us to need to receive that positive stimulus again. As happens with all addictions, tolerance to what causes the addiction builds up, which is the same as saying that we need a stronger stimulus each time in order to fill the void that is felt without that reward. For that reason, we buy more each time (even at the expense of getting in debt, as we saw yesterday) and the consumerist behavior becomes stronger in us because it is addictive. Just like with any other addiction, we have to break the cycle as soon as possible so that the repercussions are as limited as possible.
As Christian women, we have to flee from every type of addiction, not just the chemical ones, because our will has to be at the service of God, not of an excessive appetite to have, show off, or consume. One way of freeing ourselves from the addiction to buying is to focus our minds on the simple things of life. Living simply is one of the calls of the gospel and is completely possible to achieve. If we take a glance at the early church, we will see that in the times of the apostles, the people lived Christianity with happiness and simplicity.
Do you know what the key was? ‘That «continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people» (Acts 2:46, 47). They did not waste time in shopping centers, because they understood that it was not the place of worship; the church was. They did not stop before dazzling shop windows. They did not pay attention to who had more or who was dressed better, but who could be added to the ranks of Christ; they did not give priority to buying, but to worshiping God; they did not believe in individualism, but in sharing with everyone the much or the little they had.
Dear friend, enjoy the simple things: the smile of a child, the morning sunshine, the fragrance of a rose
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Take From: Daily Devotions for Women’s 2020
«One Day at a Time»
From: Patricia Muñoz Bertozzi
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Magda Sanz T
