Greed

Didn't Henry Ford once answered when asked, "How much wealth would be enough?" "Just a little bit more"? Right there is the definition of greed. Wanting more even though you already have all that you need.

I've already mentioned how Eve's selfishness and Adam's indifference as the root of all our problems. Combine these with the desire for more than what one needs and one gets greed.

Greed helps cause poverty because those who are rich often do so at the expense of the poor. Like clothing manufactures who ship clothes from overseas made from long hours, little pay and little rights for the workers.

Greed keeps people who are ill from getting help by hospitals and doctors charging too much or when land containing plants for medicine is being used up for development.

Greed for a new spouse, alcohol, drugs or abuse or even just independence causes broken families, and greed for more land to a country's boundaries helps cause war.

Now development, the owning of land and even charging money for hospital services are not bad things by themselves. It is only greed and the lack of thought for the environment and how actions affect the environment and in turn the affect on people that makes these things a problem.

Romans 12:1 Paul writes

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (NRSV)

A call for holiness means we must separate oneself from the world. I know of no other way that to stop being greedy with my time, my money, my job and my impact on the earth. That means I have to sacrifice time for myself, money for tithe to help my church, not working Sundays and being aware of what I reduce, reuse, recycle and rejoice. It's so easy to just buy new things and throw old things away with little thought to the earth. It is so easy to say, "Just a little bit more" won't hurt the earth. As Christians, we are called to be stewards. Part of stewardship is knowing when enough is enough. Greed is saying, "Just a little bit more."