The god of ease

I've been thinking quite a bit about our culture's enslavement to materialism and ease. I think most would concur that we live in a materialistic society but I'm not sure how many realize the co-god of convenience has his grip of our lives as well. I think it's more a problem of my generation than my parent's. Their generation knew how to save up for things, to wait for things, to do without and simply how to make things work in their present situation. But my generation has credit cards. When our things break we just replace them. We like things to be disposable. If we don't have money to replace it, we just charge it.
I'm guilty of this enslavement. I look at how I handle problems and how I've simply answered the "needs" and wants of my own life. My parents’ generation learned how to fix things, or they often did without. If my TV were to break, I'd probably go to the store that day and buy a new one. I think that the god of materialism and the god of ease work hand-in-hand.
As with all of our societies' ailments, the problem lies not externally, but internally. These are problems of the heart. Even though my parent's generation may not have always looked to God to meet their needs, their wants were kept in check by the morals that were instilled by their parents (the ones who lived through the Depression and World War 2).
But we (my generation) have been handed everything on a silver platter. We're the generation that has learned that everything should be ours, our way, right away. We're the instant generation. And so, I think as Christians, we have lost sight of God as Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. We don't know how to pray for things, to wait and see God work and provide. We know only how to provide for ourselves, or let Visa provide it for us.
What complicates this problem further is that we have lost what it means to want. I don't mean that we don't want things. We want and lust with the best of them. But what makes desire such a wonderful thing (and it can be a wonderful thing) is so intertwined with desire itself. If we want something and then immediately fulfill that want, then desire has no time to germinate and grow. I can want a good thing, but when I don't wait to fulfill that want, I miss out on the growth and beauty of desire. I go get what I want and satisfy my want, and suddenly I want something else. Desire is never really fulfilled because it was never able to grow. I think of this with my own children. If I immediately fulfill all their wants, they never learn what it really means to have desire fulfilled. They begin to see life merely as a game of getting. And then I duplicate in them the idol worship of ease.
I can illustrate this in my son's desire to play ball. There's nothing wrong with playing ball. It is actually a good thing, and often something we don't have enough time to do. But if I drop everything every time he wants to play ball, and we go play together, I teach him nothing about the reality of life. He doesn't understand that there are some times when Daddy must work, or Daddy needs to spend time with Mom, or he needs to do chores, etc... The same is true with toys. If I buy him everything he wants, he learns nothing of wanting and needing. He just learns to do whatever it takes to get. But when he has to wait for something (a toy, time to play, etc...) his desire grows. He learns patience. And then, when the right time comes, the desire is fulfilled. Yet half the pleasure is not in the fulfillment, but in the waiting for the fulfillment.
So as adults, there are so many times when we miss out on God providing our wants because we fulfill these ourselves. We lose the joy of the fulfillment because we haven't had to wait. The fulfillment is shallow and almost void. And then we move on quickly to fulfill our next want. We have to learn to stop this spiral.
When I entered adulthood, I longed to be married. As a young adult, I almost settled for immediate fulfillment. I was engaged at 19 and thought this would bring me the ultimate happiness. But God protected me and my desire was not fulfilled for nearly 6 years. But my desire grew and grew, and I grew. And when the Lord brought the right young woman into my life, I found the fulfillment that He intended in marriage. Had I settled, I would have had immediate gratification, but it would have been short-lived and would certainly have been followed by years of heartache.
So now, as I look at the present needs and wants in my life, I'm trying to learn to wait. And this is not to be a waiting for waiting's sake, but a waiting on the Lord. As I do this, my desire and yearning grows. Yet, when it is fulfilled in the Lord's timing, I will enjoy true fulfillment. Surely there are many wrong desires in my life. And when I am unsure what my motives are (whether they are righteous or not), I must simply wait. If the Lord doesn't provide, then I know what kind of desire that was.
I hope that as I grow, I will learn to be more content, and more patient. I know that as I do this I will be more likely to be content not in my circumstances but in Christ. It is truly a struggle. Yet if my generation doesn't learn to struggle through this, we will be in danger of gaining the world (materialism) but losing our soul.