Living with Less

8/2/2013

13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

I follow quite a few blogs on minimalism. I'm fairly passionate about having less, living with less, owning less. When we moved to our current home one year ago today, we were downsizing from a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhome with an attic, basement and garage. There were three tables on which we could eat - kitchen, dining room and patio. Our new 2 bedroom condo is still incredibly spacious. But no storage space. The parking is in an underground garage. No attic. no basement. So, we downsized our stuff and it's so freeing.

But is this passage about downsizing? Maybe. Not really. Is it about hoarding? Maybe. Is it about planning for our future? Yes. Maybe. Is it about having enough and then still wanting to save more? I think so.

Minimalism is a counter cultural conversation. So, I offer you some quotes from some favorite authors on the subject.

Joel Becker of Becoming Minimalistic says:

Owning fewer possessions makes you happier.

According to a survey by the Simplicity Institute , an organization that surveyed 2,500 people across various countries who self-identified themselves as living with fewer possessions, 87 percent of respondents indicated they were happier now than when they owned more possessions.

This may sound contrary to everything we’ve been told growing up. But when we begin to consider the benefits of living with less (less debt, less stress, less cleaning), it begins to make sense why these statistics would hold true. Happiness is not found in owning as many possessions as possible; it’s found living life consistent with your greatest passions.

This quote comes from Elaine St. James's in Living the Simple Life. As a pastor, I'm always wanting to step into this conversation with people. Is this text about a person who is pursuing riches as a way of avoiding himself? Maybe. Maybe not. Are we often pursuing riches as a way of avoiding ourselves? Yes. We even have a term for it - retail therapy.

And since shopping might make you happy, like the man in our story - Here are some books on Simplistic living, aka minimalism.