You do something. You thought it was simple and isolated.
People don’t react the way you thought they would.
The action affects situations or people you didn’t expect.
People see through your motivations that you thought were so pure.
But ego plays a role. And pride. Perhaps selfishness.
We’ve been considering simplicity.
Sometimes we must strip away our ego. And pride. And selfishness.
Before we act—what is the next right action. Considering kindness. Considering what we’ve learned from Jesus.
The same day I received an essay from Om Malik on simplicity and renewal and from my meditation teacher on stripping away complexity, I downloaded the next podcast from Tim Ferriss. He asked five acquaintances to reply with thoughts about what they have done to simplify life in 2026.
I offer some thoughts that you may find helpful.
Maria Popova noticed that she found herself in long conversations that were not nourishing her life. So, she stopped giving time to those conversations.
Morgan Housel replied with a “do nothing” thesis. His wealth basically consists of house, cash, and funds. He invested in a number of diversified funds. Then, he no longer found himself needing to make constant decisions. “The fewer decisions, the better.”
Computer scientist, professor and writer Cal Newport asks, “What request deserves a yes when the default is no?”
Craig Mod quit alcohol and decided to concentrate on only one craft (he is a writer, photographer, and occasional leader of long walks through Japan and southeast Asia).
Debbie Millman stewed over the decision to leave the corporation she had helped found or accept the offer to become CEO. Her boss and mentor finally told her, “If it takes four months to decide, you probably don’t want it.”
Thinking about deciding once and eliminating future emotional drain for decisions, I think of Steve Jobs. On a trip to Japan, he noticed everyone at the companies wore a uniform. He returned home. Cleaned out his closet. Bought black mock-turtle shirts and jeans. That was his uniform. No daily decisions. [He didn’t have my wife, who constantly wants me to add to my wardrobe—you need more colors…]
I wrote yesterday about how the word “neo” contains the meaning of not just new but re-new—refresh, strip away accumulated crud that a philosophy (or a life) attracts to return to the simple truth.
The same day that the article appeared the provoked my thinking about renewal meaning return to the simple beginnings, my meditation teacher dropped this statement into the day’s meditation:
Strip away added complications returning to simple presence.
Jesus made everything seem so simple. Yet, the bar for achievement often seemed impossibly high for the normal human.
Forgetting the bar, think only on the simple. Throw away all accumulated justifications and fuzzy thinking. Look at the few things he spoke with clarity. Living with these leads to participation in God’s Kingdom.
Simple, yet keeping it up requires practice and persistence.
Apple just released a new laptop. You can get one choosing from among five cool colors for $700 or less. The laptop is called MacBook Neo.
Neo means something more than “new.” More like “renewal.” Think of stripping away accumulated baggage returning to the basics. Simplifying things.
Writers and podcasters who follow Apple are in love with this stripped down, but still powerful, computer. One of my favorites, Om Malik, wrote a thoughtful piece.
The neo-Platonists, especially Plotinus, remain among my favorite philosophers. They stripped several hundred years of accumulated gunk on Plato’s philosophy. The returned to the thinking that everything in the universe came from The One. They sound almost Christian without the theology.
Jesus announced the beginning of his ministry saying, “Change the direction of your life! The Kingdom of God is all around you, here, now.” I think you could look at that first word as a form of “neo.” Renew yourself. Strip away the accumulated gunk of the burdensome laws the Pharisees have loaded upon you. Step into God’s Kingdom. Or as we like to say, live a “with-God” life.
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.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 