Article May 26, 1980 Issue

The gods we don't think about

JENNIFER S. YOUNGMAN

I was pleased. Though I soon would be out of work for four months, I prided myself on my lack of regard for money. I was enjoying life while friends scrambled to find jobs in order to continue bringing in the pay. But when an unexpected expense clobbered my money reserves, I suddenly realized that money meant something to me after all.

I saw that I had been making a god out of money just as much as those whom I had been chiding for having an obsession with earning a lot. In my case, I had become fascinated by how little I was spending. Many people acknowledge that it is not good to become consumed with the drive to make money, but feeling freer because one doesn't have money can be a subtle form of the same error.

The first commandment says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."^{Ex. 20:3;} We make "other gods" out of various facets of materiality when they become more important than spiritual growth. Various objects, habits, and goals are gods when they lead us astray from seeing the one God as our only source of happiness, health, and beauty. When our priorities are right, we'll find ourselves happy, healthy, attractive, in a very natural way.