Heather Jephcott writes

The Journey To Find Greed and Its Opposite

(This is long......It is a journey....only take it if you have the patience and the ability to pay attention..)

Not all the journeys we travel

are full of beauty

I was asked to go on another tour of discovery,

this time into the world of greed

to survey and discover

the meaning of this stench that I smelt around

so many corners

and that I had tried to stop infecting me.

I did not want to go

but felt a compunction to see and reveal the truth,

the dark ugliness of greed

that so many, so very many

consider wonderful, even beautiful

even leading to

their heart's desire.

The first stop was the obvious,

the lights ahead,

ugly in flashy brightness

and repetitive in their pushiness

I saw the world of gross advertising

beaconing with promises of desires met

of happiness if we have, this, that, anything

that they suggest.

I saw how ads had managed to

creep as well

and into every possible spot

infesting, attacking, with lies,

lies and more lies.

I moved on to more bright lights

even flashier this time and

my stomach felt bloated with the sights

the lights of cities, of Vegas

and then go queasy

as I saw hearts taken up with the love of gambling

getting rich quick schemes

a myriad of various designs

but all with the same goal

of getting more, much more, with little

the hope being to win and win more

and hopefully to win big, mind boggling

obesely big.

I needed to close my eyes,

to give them a moment's rest........

on opening I witnessed

the wild world of concentration

the excitement of possibilities

tattslotto, tatts, races, betting, chances of big bucks

I saw people throwing their money away

in the hope of making more,

I saw people growing poor

amidst the reliance on chance

willing to give up their own little, much

and others' little that they also took for themselves

to just make a win.

I saw how greed made life into a game

of trying to win, win, win.

This winning was diabolical.

I was becoming aware that the more

I looked, the more the portliness of the world

before me was beginning to touch me with its fulsomeness

and the more this happened

the more I wanted to vomit.

Could I go on?

I gazed at people's eyes and saw

money signs written,

this was their love, their dream

their number one desire

that if they had just enough, or more than enough,

all their desires could be met.

The lie was so strong, the message so insistent.

I moved on and found greed growing and growing

lush and strong

I saw that people's stomachs had also become

their gods.

Time, energy, dreams was given to thinking, working out how to fill distended flabby grossness.

Many had lost any idea of stopping before greed crept in.

Few knew when they had had enough.

Few gave thought to need rather than desire

and foods were being created that would help them to keep on eating and never

to feel full.

I saw how blankness had come into the minds of so many

with no desire to consider God's foods

but only their own instant requisition.

Before me I saw people wallowing in this sea of poison

taking from its superabundance without a thought

to the negative effects.

The addictiveness of greed, of the things we long to have,

to consume I witnessed coming into my own life

and surrounding me.

The accumulation of stuff for oneself and those we feel belong to us,

perhaps taking more than our fair share but never thinking so,

our needs getting mixed up with greed.

I knew this was a heart issue.

I was in the middle of a world being handed technology

without much thought given to its good use.

I saw how we were being made greedy with desire for instant pleasure,

stupidly thinking we always have a right to be in contact with another,

playing games whenever we want, see in  whatever we like.

Truly concerned thoughts for others were disappearing

as we quickly moved from one person to another.

Wars and destruction were on every level

and the repair had barely begun.

The sirens were blasting me and I wanted to turn them off

I wanted safety from the glare and blare of greed

I wanted to rid myself of any desire to become wealthy

of feeling that if I had more I would be happier,

I wanted to forget that which accompanies greed and to do away

with it, throwing it far from me.....

even the thoughts of a new vehicle before truly needing one,

desires for anything that I do not truly need.

And in my journey to the outside and the inside world

I became aware of what it was I was looking for....

the opposite of greed,

contentment.

I did find people who were smiling, happy with their lot,

content in the knowledge that God would supply all their needs

as they trusted in Him.

I saw that these were the people who were able to be

generous, wholeheartedly.

They were not worried about tomorrow

knowing tomorrow would be taken care of. 

Their generous willingness to share was so beautiful

because it did not always seem to come

with great wealth

but was found also amidst those regarded as poor

but these were the poor who knew that they were rich.

I found this contentment in spots all across

the stratas of society.

It caused my heart to sing, to smile

to breathe freely of wholesomeness.  

 --Quixle