When "Stuff" has you

I've once held this assumption that Westerners and "the rich" are a materialistic bunch, but I don't believe this anymore because I've come to know of very rich individuals who truly understands that if they're not careful, materialism can easily possess and make him a prisoner of his own money. Another misguided notion I had was that the poor are unhappy, implying that the rich are happy.

When we were at the garbage dumpsite last Sunday, one of the girls, a 15 year-old high school drop out who lives there told us that she believes God is unfair and unkind. "Why do you say that?" one of the pastoral students asked. "Because back in the province, I saw how my cousins had more than us," She said. "they had a carabao (water buffalo) while we didn't." You see? Materialism or greed lurks in every human heart; we envy, we covet and depending on how much demand (covetousness) and how much supply (one's ability to make it happen) is where we get in trouble, because materialism is not when you have "stuff" it is when "stuff" has you.