There is nothing wrong with the good things of life: the pleasure of leisure, the joy of good wine and good food, the happiness of dance and music, the comfort of a nice home, the delight of travel and all the other stuff of life.  But there is everything wrong with making these things the center of our lives and the measure of our success.  This is precisely the attitude of all the hateful totalitarianisms of the last century.  All railed about the wrong allocation of "stuff" or the need for a state plan that would produce more stuff for the masses.  While we are not as evil or dishonest as Bolsheviks or Nazis, the character of our spiritual disease is the same. Materialism is the worship of the gadgets, cars, vacations, homes, food, and such things in place of the worship of the Creator of these things and the values of honor, compassion, sacrifice, decency, and love.  The more we worship stuff, the less we care about what is really important...(Read Full Article)