materialism "hunger"

So one night i am watching tv, and here come the commercials. and there is an ad for a sweet cell phone. And i think oooooh i want that! Now, I have a PERFECTLY fine cell phone! It does all i need it to do, and then some. great battery life. And it is very reasonable. but i see these ads and I absolutely start drooling for a new phone! I like to think of myself as fairly resistant to Madison Avenue and their ploys! after all, I have taken psych, read about advertisers' techniques, and i am smaarrrter than the average bear (as Yogi says). But geez louise, those cell phone ads nail me every time. what's UP with that!?

I think it has to do with the whole upwardly mobile thing we boomers grew up with. Our parents came out of depression/WW2 era and they had a lot of deprivation when they were kids. they grew up to want to give their kids more and better than they had! and they certainly seem to have instilled that in us! But in part because of the tough times our parents grew up in, they had some emotional issues. They gave us material things, but may not have expressed feelings well. They grew up in an atmosphere of 'we are all in this together, don't whine, get over yourself" So there was no room (in their minds) for lots of emotion. We boomers got stuff that our folks never had. but we craved more. So as we have grown up, we have tried to fill these cravings with experiences or substances. We tried more material things! That worked for Mom & Dad, didn't it? So we have tried travel, jack daniels, loud music, designer shoes, marijuana, bigger cars, fancy electronics, cocaine, bigger houses, prozac, louder music, smaller phones, xanax, big screen tvs.....and on and on.

So how do we "feed" these cravings that consume us? with something that will truly satisfy?

the Gospel of John chapter 6
³⁵Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."