Do live in your own house? Do you make a mortgage payment every month? 

For most of us, real estate is becoming a crisis. In most places that I know, the cost of housing is becoming too expensive for young adults who want to buy a house. This is becoming a trend in many parts of the world, and in a strange way, this is a spiritual or at least a crisis in belief for many people.

This could be a good reason to look at ourselves, and to know what really matters in life.

The younger generations are supposed to participate in the economy and buy things that are being sold. Investors need that if they want to see a return on their investments.

If you want to see a message from an expert:

This is interesting for many people, but I am not any kind of financial advisor and I’m not selling real estate. I don’t even own a house. I am writing as a Christian and I believe we need to see our spiritual problems, and correct them.

A few years ago, I had a talk with a young man that I know. This was when real estate seemed more affordable. This young man did a cost-benefit analysis of his life. That is not as boring as it sounds.

The story was like this: He was thinking about training as an engineer, but he could see some ‘cost’ problems.  First, he needed to stop earning money, and also to pay tuition at a university for four years. That is a big problem in a young life.

Then, the young man surprised me. He was very sure that after he graduated, he would need to start a career. He was sure that he would need a job with a large engineering company, and that would mean moving to [a big and expensive city]. He was sure that he would need a nice and sociably acceptable wife, with her own career possibilities, if he wanted to have a good image in his new career and company. He would need an expensive house in the new city, and he would need at least one expensive car in the driveway, and possibly two.

The young man was counting the cost of keeping up the image that he would need if he wanted that career, after four years of university training. He said the salary might be very good, but then he would have to cover many high costs, to keep up with his new career.

I was surprised, but he was correct. The ornaments that support the vanity in some careers can be expensive. The young man did a cost-benefit analysis and he then decided to follow a different career path.

You might be wondering how he is doing now. He is married and I think he has a very nice wife. She has a promising career, they own a nice house but not in that expensive city, and they just had their first baby. It’s a boy, and he is very cute in the pictures. 

They seem to have a good life and I’m glad for them.

Now, let’s make this a spiritual problem. People have dreams. In the United States, it’s called the “American Dream.” The dream that makes us successful in this world easily becomes something like a religion. This is the thing that determines everything that we should be in our life. At least we think we know what we should be.

The cost of the dream was too much for that practical man. He didn’t want to be like a slave to a professional image.  I think he was wise, and I think most of us are not as wise as him. We often pursue the dream of success, and we pay the high costs, even if the costs are too high, and the cost might be too high in balance with the benefits. I know some retired people who aren’t sure that they made the right life choices.

We believe. 

In the Bible, we have something called the “God of this age”: 

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, so they would not see the light.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Now, that failure of the dream is becoming like an epidemic. Apparently, we have entire generations that can’t easily chase after the dream of materialism. The god of this age is not as convincing.

The first Christians lived mostly in the Roman Empire, where money, careers and status were like the meaning of life. The Christians, who were often persecuted violently, worshiped a different God. They were very different from the material worshiping neighbors, and they payed a high price. 

We have words in the Bible that were written in those times:

All that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away. (1 John 2: 16 and 17)

The dreams of materialism are a spiritual issue, and they will become a spiritual problem, when the dream dies. It seems that the promises from the god of this age are failing for the young generations of adults.

I hope we can find the light in this darkness.