I’ve got everything I want, nothing that I need.—song by Lord Huron
I’m thinking about Thanksgiving coming tomorrow. This song arrived on my streaming channel. It describes much about American (and others, I’m sure) culture right now.
How far apart are our wants from our needs?
Am I thankful for the right things?
We live in an acquisitive culture. Not only the US where most of my readers are, but in much of the world. Books, “news” media, “social” media—all these promote more.
Perhaps a better route to mental and spiritual health is less. Look around. What can I give away, recycle, pitch?
Now we can focus upon that which matters.
We had a vision of a ministry to support people who had certain needs.
Simple. We copy from other ministries that people knew. We listened to someone with myriad ideas, powerful personality, a well thought out, yet complexly structured, ministry.
Not so simple.
We began soon discovering life doesn’t fit complex theories.
We found the path, the simple path, the path that led some toward health.
Isn’t that like our lives? We try to live by following complex theologies or philosophies. It really doesn’t work. We still haven’t found a life imbued with the fruit of the spirit.
Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Aren’t these the qualities of life we seek? Not through following complex theologies and philosophies. It’s the simple life in the Spirit.
Maybe pick one for the day. Perhaps try to intentionally be kind to yourself this morning and then to everyone and everything you meet along the way.
“The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.”— Bertrand Russell
I’d like to take this thought from the famous atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell and think on it.
Let us consider the impulses that drive our lives. We often think that we humans have free choice on all our decisions and life directions.
That last car you purchased. What made you wish to go buy a car? Why that make and model? And color?
What clothes are you wearing? Why that brand? Style? Color? Are they appropriated for where you are and what you’re doing?
Do I constantly crave some new possession? A new boat? A new house in a different neighborhood? Another piece of furniture? More books (that would be me)?
Or…
Am I driven to help at the food pantry? Perhaps start a new ministry to assist homeless or teach young people something? Perhaps write a book?
In the end, these latter impulses provide a better, happier life.
What if…
These two words along with “why” lead to many thoughts.
Looking at the situation of many people in the world, I thought “what if we had not constructed a society and an economy that depends upon all of us buying more stuff?”
Read the economics news from almost any country in the world today. What do you see? Consumer spending is up or down and therefore the economy is up or down. And employment is up or down.
Media (except this blog which generates no income) depends upon advertising—advertising convincing us by any of the latest psychology findings about motivation—where companies tell us to buy more stuff.
What if we didn’t get caught up in that gerbil cage wheel of consumption? What if we had time, like ancient peoples did, to sit and think? To meditate on God? To engage in conversations? To play?
Maybe today you and I can get off the consumption merry-go-round which drives people to 60-hour work weeks and pause, breathe, become aware of people and places around us?
Do you catch yourself rummaging through drawers looking for your “good” knife? Or, patting your pockets searching for your “good” pen?
That means you have “bad” ones. Throw those out.
[Note: I picked up this idea from a new book from Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.]
This thought can extended. Do you find yourself sitting thinking bad thoughts about someone or something? Do you catch yourself in a bad habit? Are you associating with people who lead you into bad attitudes?
Throw also those out along with the knives and pens. Clean house of bad tools, thoughts, relationships, habits. Simplify life. Live cleanly.
Simplicity—we are approaching travel season. How do you travel?
When Jesus sent his followers out on a training mission, he told them to take nothing with them.
Thanks to laptop and digital files, anti-microbial marino wool T-shirts, water-(and red wine) shedding slacks, I’ve learned to take a 3-4 day business trip with only a backpack. I can do a week’s vacation to most places that way. The reduced load on my mind (and my back) by learning to get by with less is freeing.
This, of course, is a metaphor for living a simpler life in general. What can you reduce, throw out, unclutter? How much emotional crap are you carrying that should be disposed of? How many physical objects are getting in your way?
Enough is a feast.
Everywhere you look or listen, others tell us we Americans must pursue more. This is no doubt true in many other parts of the world. Messages from advertising, TikTok, YouTube, friends tell us we need more clothes, more cosmetics, more money, bigger house, new car. If you are not seeking a promotion at work, you are a failure.
A man came to Jesus and asked him to tell his brother to give him more of an inheritance. Jesus replied with a story. A farmer had a bountiful crop. He had so much that he planned to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to hold all the grain. Then God said to the farmer, “Fool, today your soul will be demanded of you. Now, of what use will the bigger barns be.”
Jesus offered the point of the story. “This is what happens when you fill your barn with Self rather than God.”
When we know where are true priorities are, then striving for more is a waste. Enough is a feast.
Enough is a feast–ancient proverb.
We go to a buffet dinner. We could take a smaller plate and add just enough tasty food to satisfy. Or we could take a large plate, pack it full of food piled high, eat most of it, and with stomachs distended and bloated feel lethargic and ill.
In America, we have so much stuff that we have no place in the house for the new stuff we just had delivered from Amazon. A thriving business of storage garages serves the need to keep stuff that we may never see again.
We can’t get enough. We must have a larger house. Another car. More money.
Yet, we are unfulfilled.
I sat with my bowl of oatmeal (porridge) this morning. Note: sorry keto or paleo people, but whole grains with their fiber is an excellent way of taming cholesterol and triglycerides. I thought about how I used to eat oatmeal what I would call American style–with a lump of brown sugar and raisons.
One day I considered that. Why add sugar? And raisons are not my favorite. I pitched the sugar and added fresh fruit instead of dried (less sugar there, too). I discovered I liked the flavor of the cereal itself.
When I was introduced to coffee, I added milk and sugar. I found I was drinking more coffee when I began working in manufacturing. I noticed the additives–powdered cream surely cannot be healthy. We add too much sugar to everything. So, one day I simplified. I drank just the coffee. It can have a wonderful flavor all by itself. Especially so when you get a direct trade coffee pour over or french press. But I digress.
Of course, then product development people (I was once one of those) began perfecting caffeine delivery systems adding foamed milk and shots of sugary syrup with the fancy Italian name of latte–but that’s another story.
Our lives often become complicated by the additives we accumulate. Possessions, activities, acquaintances who drag us down.
Sometimes, we need to metaphorically step back from ourselves and take a look at our lives. And strip away the unhealthy habits and possessions. Discover the true flavors of living in the present moment shorn of all the peripherals that distract.
Simplify. It doesn’t have to be boring. It can be liberating.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 