Here's the trouble: You have been conditioned to consume. Western society has duped you into thinking that everything in life is available for your consumption; or not.
Homo sapien (wise man) has not evolved into a more intelligent species; instead, homo sapien has (d)evolved into homo consumptor (consuming man).
The fine folks at Apple are often picked on (and I'll admit I own and love more than three of their products), but you don't have to look much further than the iPhone, iPod, and iPad to know that Apple knows intuitively that you are homo consumptor. iThis and iThat; products made for individual consumption. Marketing has become a multi-billion dollar business, providing jobs for millions. We sell things to people because people are nothing more than what they buy. Gone are the days when we traded, bartered for, or (gasp!) even produced our own stuff from the stuff God gave us.
Lest you think I am some sort of Lutheran pastor luddite, I have no problem with buying things. In fact, it's quite necessary for survival in the economy and system we live in; and I even enjoy the occasional shopping spree.
Yet, my identity is not defined by what I buy. I am not homo cosumptor. I am a human being, thank you very much. I am defined by my God, who marked me with Christ's cross in my baptism and sealed me as a child of God forever. As St. Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, NRSV).
Not only has Western society mistaken our identity as purely consumer, we have mistaken ourselves for the same. Not everything in this world is made for your consumption. In fact, everything in this world is made for your stewardship, not your consumption. You are a steward.
God has given you the gifts you are blessed with to take good care of, not simply consume. As a steward cares for the goods that his lord has given him charge over so, too, do we care for the goods our Lord has given us charge over. In the garden, God gave dominion over creation. "God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.' God said, 'See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.' And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good" (Genesis 1:28-31a, NRSV).
While there are parts of creation that are meant to be consumed, i.e. the food we eat, not everything in creation is consumed. Some, most of it, is meant to be stewarded and cared for.
We watch human beings abuse the gifts they are given in endless iterations of the same, sad patterns of consumption. Consume, consume, consume. It becomes about getting my needs met. Me, myself, and I. Soon enough, me, myself, and I have become our gods and we enshrine them in the stuff we collect, setting up altars of junk.
Junk is not the only thing we insist on consuming. Everything in our lives has become something to consume. Women are asked to dress seductively so that we can photograph them, manipulate the images, put them in a magazine or on a website, and consume them with our eyes. War and action are staged and filmed; death on the big screen, put on display to view and marvel at. Worship and bible study have been something we either 'like' or 'do not like' as if the worship we offer God were somehow better in one way or another.
The last one is the one that really bugs me lately. We think worship is something to be consumed or not. "I don't like this style of worship. This hymn isn't very good. That pastor at that church isn't the kind of pastor I like. I'm just not into that kind of thing." These are all the excuses we make to dismiss worship, as if worship were something we could consume, or not.
Worship is not about you. It's about God. And worship is a gift, meant to be stewarded by us and lead us into encountering God. Not everything is made for consumption and worship is one of those things that is made to enjoy and care for.
What would the world look like if we stopped consuming and started stewarding? I suspect we'd have a lot less abuse and a lot more care for the things God has made. We'd have a lot more people in worship not to consume, but to worship.
It's not about you. It's about God. Now get over yourself and start stewarding what God has given you!
