are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14 NASB). In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19 NASB). “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things” are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing