The Enchanting Castle of Woodland

At the wee hours of morning, 11:30 am, a group of friends and I went on your typical trip to the mall. Yet this time we went with an intended purpose. As we made our way around the 4 main sections of the mini mall, we noticed that most of the descriptions that were mentioned in Jon Pahl's third chapter, The Shopping Mall as "Stairway to Heaven," Leading Nowhere, were quite accurate. Some of the things that I saw that I did not notice before, that was mentioned in the chapter, were that the mall did not have any windows (unless they were the store's display windows), most of the lights were either through the skylights on the ceilings or artificial lights. Yet another thing that we noticed that was not mentioned in the chapter was the fact that most of the stores were either empty or had very little people in the stores themselves. It seemed as if most of the people were just at the mall to just be at the mall and  were also just walking around as if they had no purpose to be at the mall. Some of the ways that the mall persuaded the potential clients with their religious qualities were by having sales. Most of the stores that I personally seemed interested in were all stores that were having clearance sales. Even though I did look through many sales I still did not buy anything. Despite the fact that I am a broke college student that can barley afford a shoelace, the reason I did not buy anything was because I realized I had fallen into the trap. It was then that I realized that the mall does compete for my attention against the church. Although I am a believer and know what God is capable of doing with my life, I still at times give my loyalty to the mall due to its attractions. Even though the mall has its pros it also has its cons and we as believers need to realize this so we don't give into the trap of materialism and instead focus on what God wants us to do.