Minimalism might help
Do you ever feel like you’re a two-humped, overloaded camel struggling to get through the eye of a needle? If you do, read Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus.
Some people think that a true minimalist can’t own a house or car or toaster. All your possessions should fit into a slim backpack and the only thing in your right hand should be a ticket to somewhere else. But the authors of the book Minimalism put it this way:
Minimalism looks different for everyone because it’s about finding what is essential to you.
. . . minimalism is simply about stripping away the unnecessary things in your life so you can focus on what’s important.
So, minimalism raises two questions:
· What’s burdening you?
· What’s important to you?
Christ was addressing these two questions when he said:
It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24)
This statement has rattled a lot of people for more than two thousand years because they’ve taken it literally. But Christ had a deeper message than telling everyone to throw their money away.
From a minimalist perspective, what he meant was this:
If you have too much stuff in your life, you’ll never attain what you seek.
Most of us seek things like peace, purpose and happiness. But they’re always just out of reach, over the next hill, or coming soon. We don’t have them now. And the reason we don’t have them now is because we have too many other things cluttering our perspective.
Our lives are clogged with stuff that needs to be given the toss.
What sort of stuff?
We have drawers full of torches with flat batteries. Too much Tupperware. A closet bursting with jeans that haven’t fit us for eighteen years. And we have minds stuffed with foolish hopes (I hope I don’t die), petrifying fears (Will I get sacked today?) and stale beliefs (I’m locked into my DNA).
Possessions and mental turmoil don’t bring us what we really want.
Christ called what we want the Kingdom of God. He also said the Kingdom of God is within us. (Luke 17:21).
The Kingdom of God (what you want) isn’t a place in the sky. What you want is deep inside you.
You carry the Kingdom of God – peace, purpose and happiness – everywhere you go because you already have it. You just have to clear the clutter so it can arise.
As many minimalists are finding out, what you seek is within.
With love, Marlane
First published on Medium.com - Change Your Mind Change Your Life.
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