“The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.” – Seth Godin
Nichole and I agree that our favorite movie is Into the Wild. It is a story about a twenty-three year old college graduate named Christopher McCandless. Christopher comes from a wealthy family who is driven by money, belongings, and community status. This isn’t the life he wants for himself. After graduating college, he gives his life’s savings away to charity and strikes out on what he calls his “great adventure.” He spends two years traveling the country, backpacking his way to his final destination,
Later we picked up the book Walden, which is considered Thoreau’s best work. We both recently started reading it and are really enjoying it. He may be the single most quotable author I’ve read to date. From what I can gather so far from the book, it is about living a simpler life. The book is an autobiographical account of the two years he spent in a log cabin he built with his own hands outside of a town in New England in the woods overlooking
To be completely candid with you, some months go by when we have only a few dollars left after paying our bills. We get depressed and ask ourselves why God would let us stay in such a financial struggle. How selfish are we? The truth is, the only reason we are short on money is because we, like most people, have fallen into the trap of our commercialized society, a society that promotes you to live well above your means. We are told we won’t be happy unless our car is as nice as the neighbor’s or if our house isn’t over so many square feet. We buy and buy, and for what? Vanity. Nichole and I feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel financially, but it is because we have nice things. We bought into the idea that we have to have this or that to be happy to the point that we have accrued so much debt that we are merely slaves to our possessions.
In his book Guerrilla Lovers, author Vince Antonucci has a chapter called Anti-Terror Resources. In this chapter he gives cold, hard truths about the excess we as Americans live in. He begins by reminding us of the story in the Bible about the person described as “a rich man.” He seems to be a well-to-do farmer whose only problem is that his barns aren’t big enough to hold the excess crops he has harvested. He tears down his old barns to build even bigger ones that will hold the excess he is reaping from his field. The day he finishes the new supersized barn, he dies. Then we read Jesus calling this man a fool. The author goes on to point out that the man was rich. But if you were to ask the man if he was rich, he would tell you no. There would have been others he could have named that had more than he did. But the fact is that he had an excess; this makes him rich. The same logic applies to us: If you were to ask me a month ago if I was rich, I would have told you that you were a lunatic for even bringing up such an absurd question. But the truth is I live in excess. Compared to the world, I am rich.
The chapter goes on to state that 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water. One billion people live in extreme poverty. Eighty percent of the world lives in substandard housing. Seventy percent of the world is illiterate. Only one percent of the world has a college education, and only eight percent of the world has a vehicle. The statics are humbling. We are so self-centered, worrying about buying the next big thing, or even worse, paying off the debt from buying the next big thing, that these injustices are given a blind eye.
Nichole and I have decided that we are tired of living above our means. We’re tired of listening to the lie that your possessions make you happy. God made a great, big world: oceans, rivers, mountains, and deserts; but we are more interested in what is on television tonight. How many sunsets have we missed because we were on the couch watching some mindless sitcom? I think we are going to turn our cable off. We are going to try to simplify our lives and try to live below our means so that we can help others. We are going to try to start fasting a meal a week together. The money we save from fasting the meal, we are going to give to a charity. It is time we start living for others. It’s time I start living for others.
If you have any creative ideas on how to give back to the less fortunate, I’d love to hear your feedback.
“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” (Eccles. 5:10)
Wow. I'll be thinkin about this for a while, man. Thanks.
ReplyDeletegreat post. and if you love the movie, you'll love the soundtrack! (maybe you already do :)
ReplyDeletei know that cheyenne and i are in our purging process. some stuff that i have really been thinking through is all the things that i hold on to that symbolized a "status" in my life. most of those thing I don't need or even use any more, so i take a deep breath, and i let them go. the funny thing is that a lot of it is clothes - and brands - and the feelings of having the "in" brand. but this week...they are gone!
one way that we also save money on our food expenses is to eat meat just a few times a week. meat is expensive. and after watching "food, inc." (another great documentary that will mess with your mind - and your belly...LOL) we have chosen to go with more natural options with our groceries. but we don't want to spend more money, so we have to change something. therefore we will have meet a few times a week, like most of the world does already.
today (earth day) i have really had a light bulb moment. i don't ever want to be guilty of being selfish enough to live life with a feeling of entitlement. saying i deserve to use up these resources around me because __________, or i can't sacrifice a certain way of life that i am used to because ____________. i don't know if that makes sense, but bottom line is that i want to be responsible with every aspect of my life. my giving to others, my (our) finances, my consumption of the "earth" etc...
ok. i'm long-winded. but yeah. great post. just know that others are taking this journey with you!
(and ps. as of july, our cable will be off too...! $60/month savings!)
Kelton, thanks for the comment. I'm glad you read the blog and considered it food for thought.
ReplyDeleteRobert, the soundtrack is indeed awesome. :)
I'm glad we're not alone in this venture. Knowing that someone else is trying the same thing is encouraging.
i tend to see Christopher's story as one of a tenderfoot venturing into territory he had no right being in, at least not without enough provisions and knowledge to survive. this in my opinion parallels his philosophy of life-which is literally and ideologically a dead end.
ReplyDeletei agree that "things" are not the sum of happiness, however i fear an over correction in the other direction. there is no happiness when you and your family are starving for example because food- a things, and a status symbol-makes happiness possible. however i agree with your overall premise that there are things that we can cut from our lives. however, i dont believe that there is a moral imperative to do so.
it seems to me that people believe that our excess has caused(in some way) the condition of the rest of the world; namely we feel guilty because we have and many do not. someone in Africa is not starving because i ate too much pizza-it isn't as simple as that. while such massive statistics should move us to action, we shouldn't be moved because we feel at fault. we should be moved by compassion. many of these countries are in truly pitiful conditions because their government is too powerful or too weak. we should give to charities, but also aim at fixing the main problem, ex. Darfur. there is no monopoly of force there(a ground rule for any stable government), the country is split by civil war. doctors and other volunteers work there at peril of their own lives, and while they help people-which is extremely admirable and done at risk of their own lives- it doesn't help fix the problem. it seems like this to me anyway.
as for Jesus' parable, his point is not necessarily one of a social gospel; he doesn't condemn the rich man for keeping to much for himself and not giving to the poor(although surely we may believe that this was part of the rich man's failing), but because he had no concern for his FUTURE life. the gospel we present must not be a social gospel- which makes the same mistake as the rich man in the parable- but the full gospel, which includes generosity to the poor. however the life to come must be foremost for Christians. i believe the power of the social gospel movement comes from the residual guilt many Christians feel for crude early missionary attempts. however, if we give them water that quenches only a temporary thirst we will fall short of what Jesus missed. like the disciples i fear we often miss his point. let us give them clean water, and also tell them of the eternal well.
and while commercialized society may have pitfalls(excessive consumerism), the things do not corrupt us; we were corrupt long before this, i am sure there are corrupt people in rich and poor countries. the christian message says mankind is all in the same boat-rich or poor- our wealth doesn't make us worse, we are already depraved. if we believe that we can make the world better by giving we are mistaken-we can improve the lives of people- but make the world(i.e. people) better? only Christ and His Kingdom may have such an affect, and it has been proclaimed, and is coming "on earth as it is in heaven".
Hayden, thanks for you thoughts. I agree that it isn't wise to suffer yourself or your family in order to help someone else. I'm not that radical. My goal is simply to cut back on my lifestyle, and in doing so, freeing myself financially from useless debt and things. In turn, I can freely give to those who are less fortunate. I agree that God's message is more important than clean water in Africa, but giving them clean water is better than doing nothing. What if they die in poverty before they ever hear God's message? I'd like to think that I give out of compassion to man's suffering, but if it is indeed out of guilt, I would rather give out of guilt than not give at all.
ReplyDeleteHope all is well in Dallas.
Cody
i must have placed to much fluff in my comment; my intended main point was that the Gospel must be presented in its entirety; something spiritual that affects the physical. The "Social Gospel" as it is called, is not the gospel of Jesus, however, to a certain extent(often not the to extent that many christians assume), Jesus' gospel is social. the social gospel is the logical next step in liberal christian theology(which denies traditional christianity-i.e. a physical resurrection, etc), and tends to focus on the here and now, and not the life to come. there is also the opposite reaction of many fundamentalists which focuses solely on the life to come. the Gospel, its action, and behavior must be balanced. in other words to give water but no teaching is to condemn by ignorance, and to give only the Gospel but no water is to condemn to physical, and to totally devalue the physical which scripture simply does not teach. Let us give them what we can, including the Gospel and access to resources.
ReplyDeletegood thoughts. good thoughts.
ReplyDeletei don't think any of us would ever be able to "simplify" to the extent to cause literal suffering in our family. i will always put food on our table, i will always clothe my kids (and sometimes myself - only if we have guests). but like you said cody, this is about freeing up finances to be able to meet a pressing need.
you know, one challenge might be to find the local needs that are all around us. while we sponsor two world vision kids, i don't know of a time that i have deliberately helped a local kid. maybe we should start with our communities first. now that has me thinking. :)
I totally agree. Nichole was telling me that she is friends with a married couple that is giving locally. Just like most church goers set back a portion of their income for the church, they set a side an addition portion of their income for others. They keep putting back and when they meet someone in need they give whatever they have put back to them. Sometimes it is twenty dollars, sometimes it is three hundred depending on how long they go in between meeting someone. I thought this was a great idea. It is so personal.
ReplyDeleteAh, the wheels are turning :)
Love the article. I think that the only way for us to avoid the overindulgence in the American Dream is to minimize our lifestyle. It's impossible to remain neutral. Either you're living in excess, or you're cutting things out.
ReplyDeleteSince Cody and I have been cutting things out of our life, such as minimizing our energy use, I have developed a mindset that is always on the track of "What else can I do to preserve the planet and be cognizant of my responsibility as a consumer?"
I love the point that you made, Robert, about not feeling entitled to all that the planet has for us. Yes, God blessed us with a beautiful place, but it is our obligation to take care of it. It's the equivalent of giving a child a bicycle and then him leaving it in the driveway to get run over. To show our gratitude for this great place, we must take care of it.
I don't want to be like the Joneses. I wouldn't mind having their money, but they live a life that's never satisfied with what they have. If we remove the clutter from our lives, we can have a greater appreciation for the little things.
Good post Cody. In many cases less is definitely more. As the old saying goes, "It's not having what you want, its wanting what you have" There is definitely great danger in materialism. Its been on my mind a lot lately and I find myself drawing more and more to simpler things. I too am simply tired of too much "stuff".
ReplyDeleteI too applaud the cable decision. I think you will find your mind to be a lot less cluttered of a space without the television's constant barrage.
Welcome to the world of simplicity!