I just finished reading a great blog post by a media company, examining the societal trend of consumers ditching ownership for access and consumption. The material things that used to give us identity and personality and serve as symbols of status are all but out of vogue for the current generation of young adult consumers. (And yes, that is an altered picture of the famous Nirvana album cover. If you click the link, it will all make sense.)

The central argument the blog makes is this. “The pride of possession and sense of identification that an album/book/movie collection used to give has been supplanted by the ease of access and availability that Internet services provide. But this paradigm transcends mere media consumption habits and traverses into all areas of life. From Zipcar to AirBnB, people are slowly letting go of the reigns of ownership in favor of a social, access-driven share model that satisfies demand.”

How cool would it be if we could spiritually apply this trend? If we extracted the value we have long placed on “owning stuff” like cars, houses, clothes, etc. and replaced that with a pursuit of access and consumption to feed our inner desires? What if that focus on access and consumption was aimed toward God and the things He wants to share with us? The gifts He wants to give us. What if we could really shift our paradigm to view the things of this world as rented and replaceable and the things that are of God as owned and eternal? If we could view “things” as ways to facilitate our journey and not be the destination for our journey?

The blog author closes by suggesting that those of us in previous generations could learn a lot from these new consumers. I agree. Both in terms of our material existence, as well as our spiritual health.