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Now I could hit you over the head with 47 reasons why over-consumption is bad, but you’ve heard them all before. And that would just make me wallow in the kind of guilt that only retail therapy can alleviate. Sometimes.

Maybe, instead, the better approach is reflecting on Jesus’ directive to the disciples and imagining why going with only one tunic was good for them — and might be good for us.

1. It’s good for your relationships with others.
When I was in high school, I borrowed my prom dress from a friend. I only needed it for one evening and didn’t have a lot of spare cash. She wasn’t wearing it and had plenty of other prom dresses. It made perfect sense.

By borrowing rather than buying a dress, I got more than a dress. I got a memorable experience with a friend as we searched through her closet and goofed around together. And she got something too: She got a chance to practice generosity and to feel good about helping me out. Our friendship deepened.

One tunic instead of two? The disciples who only had one tunic had to rely on the good graces of other people. They had to ask for something to wear while they did their laundry. Their poverty and dependence were real. But their hosts got the opportunity to practice hospitality, and they all experienced the give and take of human relationships.

When we have less, we have to depend on one another to fill in the gaps. If we can lean on one another for the little things — a dress, a meal, a ride somewhere — we develop relationships that help us depend on one another through the big things too. Those disciples built relationships out of their poverty. We can too.

2. It’s good for your relationship with yourself.
Consumption is often driven more by lack of self-worth than by actual material need. Am I wanting a new dress or am I really wanting to cover up something else?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good, have a lovely home, or improve your golf swing. But you can probably look good, have a lovely home, and develop a decent golf swing without buying a single new thing. And if you buy clothes to cover up your own sense of ugliness, decorations to distract you from your unease in your surroundings, or golf clubs to compensate for feeling like a klutz, it’s counterproductive.

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Faith reflections by Sarah Scherschligt

Visit the study page for ideas for discussion and further reflection.

Most of us reading this article live in a world of plenty, even of excess. This is not true for most of the world, and many people around the world lack even life’s basic necessities. You probably didn’t wake up with hunger pangs or have to run after the food aid truck to get your daily bread. And if you are reading this, you have access to a computer, the education to make you literate, and enough free time to read for pleasure.

We live in a world where our needs are met and then some, but we act like those Israelites — afraid of going hungry, whatever our hunger may be. We use our purchasing power to create a myth for ourselves in which we are in total control of sustaining our lives. We buy things in a feeble attempt to buy security — and it’s never going to work.

The antidote to our collective consumptive anxiety isn’t more stuff, it’s remembering that the God of the Israelites still rains down manna from heaven. It’s trusting that God provides for our deepest needs.

We remember the trust that developed between God and the Israelites every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us today our daily bread and deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:11). We pray for what we need today and to be delivered from the evil forces within that keep us, like those Israelites in the desert, craving captivity.

As we pray this prayer, we are reminded that everything we have comes from God, who can be trusted to provide what we need to get through this one day. We remind ourselves of the source of our survival and security — and it’s not a 24-hour supermarket.

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