“So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.”

Walmart announced yesterday that they will begin paying immediately for hours already worked.  Imagine the ATM card for instant pay. It sounds great in one way.  I’ve earned the pay, so why do I have to wait to the end of the week, or two weeks, or a month to get paid?  It seems fair and equitable. On the other hand, it returns Walmart workers to “day-workers” psychologically and that has its own repercussions. The other danger here is what happens to the budgets and savings of people who already have a hard time not getting ahead of themselves?  I’m not writing of just those who are challenged to manage their finances, but to those who are younger and haven’t yet grasped the real blessing of delayed gratification.  I think back on my early jobs and had I been paid daily, I’m afraid I would have spent daily.  The revolving credit card and  ATM (which has now turned 40 years old) already pushed us into instant access, now add instant pay behind those funds and I worry about the next generation.

Evil works in many ways but we know that materialism is one of his go-to weapons.  We must guard ourselves against wanting more when we have more and even more so when it is immediately available to us.  Our God has modeled to us that we are not to be ones of instant gratification.  Today, we will have more than one opportunity to experience and garner something we want instantly so let’s be sure that before we exercise that action that we take caution by reminding ourselves first, of what we already have and secondly, what are our actual true needs?

Reference: 1 Timothy 6:8 (New Living Translation)

Reference: