subject: Peer Pressure [print this page] There is a third source of the killer fees, peers. Peer pressure. I like the word peer. Because the word peer in my lingo kind of means we peer at each other to see what the other person has. Hummmm. "They have that home. They drive that car. They are a member of that club. I am just as educated, I'm just as smart, I'm just as young, I need that, I want that." And we have this never ending cycle of the gimmies. We compare and we classify ourselves and we think, I have got to have that. II Corinthians 10:12 "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves. When we measure and compare we are not wise." I deserve that. Have you ever said that before? I deserve that.
How did this materialistic mentality take hold in our world today? Ed Young says, America is definitely the most materialistic, money-hungry nation on the planet. Why? Let me give you a typical example of Al, the average American child. Al, the average American child, grows up and during the impressionable years most of the conversation he hears around the breakfast table centers on money, what it can get, what it can buy. He comes to the conclusion that money really talks. Then he sees his father kind of climb up the corporate ladder and because his father is climbing ladder he gets raises and he moves across the country to a bigger house.
Then a bigger house. Always upscaling. And the little man thinks well, I guess money is more important than spiritual roots or family roots or relational roots. Sounds good to me. And Al, the average American child, grows up. He considers college. He talks to his parents about college and his parents say, "You need to go to that university and major in that subject because it will yield the highest income. Even though you might not like the field, it is worth it if you make some serious money." He graduates, gets involved in this career, makes a lot of money, gets married and then he teaches unknowingly and unwillingly this value system he learned from his parents to his children. Then as an elderly man he looks back over his life but he never really realizes that he has been led around through life on the short leash by something called the money monster. It can happen, folks, it is real. And I see so many of Christ's followers being led around by this materialistic, money driven mentality.
