The Significant Problem of Minimal Living

It all started with the shoes.  I shouldn’t have gotten those shoes.  I loved them!  My minimalist Vibram Five Fingers were so much fun.  It was so cool to have shoes that would handle a wide variety of situations and yet remain so simple.

Getting the Five Fingers encouraged me to get a job in the footwear department of Gander Mtn.  Since most of the brands that we sold celebrate the “Hybrid Life” (that’s Keen) and advertise the happy, outdoor life (mosquitos not included), I found it really easy to get excited.  Every time I worked, I would gaze longingly along the shelves and linger at the clearance rack.  Then, two weeks ago, when the camping department was combined with the footwear, I inherited a whole new department of things to envy.

To add to my predicament, I began to think of all the items I was soon going to need when I moved out of the house.  The possibilities of what I could buy danced before my eyes.  I had a store discount, plus opportunity for deep savings through online training.  I had frequent access to further stimulation.  And I had a very discontented attitude.

Then, being the type-A personality that I am, it was time to write a list!  So, I researched what I would need: a mixture of setting up a first home, camping for an extended period, and minimalist living.  I figured that by purchasing high quality gear, I could ensure my comfort, happiness, and coolness.  But then I started reading all these minimalist blogs.  You know…

  
            -  Minimalism is learning what you can live without 
               -  The list is less about what you have, and more about what you don’t have.

And that made me think.  Isn’t it defeating the very principles of minimalism if you are SO concerned about your stuff?  Minimalists who define themselves by the few things they have vs their ability to do without?  [What happens if you separate one of these minimalists from their very lack of stuff?  (notice, lack is the noun, not stuff)]  It’s a fine line, but one that I had crossed.

So, I will be a minimalist – not obsessed with things or my need to get rid of things.  Rather, I will learn to be content, even if that means contentment with a traditional life.  After all, isn’t that what a minimalist seeks?  Contentment?

I'm Good, You're Good, We're All Good

I have huge plans for my future.  I mean totally exciting, chic, cool plans.  Two weeks ago I talked to a Navy recruiter.  Last week I researched summer jobs on Mackinac Island.  This week… well this week I wrote an English paper (reality does set in at times), but in between times I looked up a website about creating your personal bucket list.  And the whole time, I have been thinking.

What do I want from life?  I want to be loved.  I want to be fulfilled and satisfied.  I want to be proud of what I have done.  I want to have really cool stories to tell.  I want to have fun.  “Oh, yeah,” the back of my mind squeaks, “and you should probably take into consideration what God has for your life.  After all, His way is the only way that brings true fulfillment, right?”

Well, back to English.  I have been summarizing articles and writing essays on gender identity and fatherhood (not my choice, they were assigned).  In one of the articles, a radio transcript from NPR, Kay Hymowitz, author of Manning Up spoke about what she calls “pre-adulthood.”  It is that age after college and before people grow up, and it is becoming increasingly long.  During the radio interview, she was asked a revealing question:

KELLY: Kay, it's a fair question. This is a caller who's served his nation in the military. Why does he need to settle down in the traditional sense, to be a man?

Ms. HYMOWITZ: Well, he doesn't, and he's paid substantial dues for becoming an adult and you know, I totally respect that. However, I have to ask the question: What happens when you have, you know, more and more men asking this question?

The fact is, most people - most women, in particular but men, too - say they want to marry and have children. What happens, though, if you start getting more and more men saying: Why shouldn't I just play around? Why shouldn't I just play the field? What do I need to settle down for?

I mean, it's one thing to say, you know, that this one individual, it's fine. Of course it is fine. But on a social level, we have to ask: If you get more and more of these individuals saying that, what are we saying about our future?

If everyone went around having “fun,” society wouldn’t look too good.  If I were to enlist in the Navy for the required eight years, and every other girl was to enlist as well, what would that do to marriage? 

Another one of the articles that I have been reading is written by David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values.  He argues that the decline in fatherhood reflects a fundamental change in our society, and it hurts both our country and us:

In personal terms, the end result of this process, the final residue from what David Gutmann calls the “Deculturation” of paternity, is narcissism: a me-first egotism that is hostile not only to any societal goal or larger moral purpose but also to any save the most puerile understanding of personal happiness…. In a larger sense, the most significant result is our society’s steady fragmentation into atomized individuals, isolated from one another and estranged from the aspirations and realities of common membership in a family, a community, a nation, bound by mutual commitment and shared memory. (207)

With no one willing to sacrifice, no one willing to commit to others, we are harmed as individuals and as a society.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

So it would seem that running off into the wilds of Yellowstone might not be the best answer.  Now I just have to work out how one becomes their own individual, without separating themselves from others.  Who knows, maybe I will write a summary about that in English next week.

Works Cited

Blankenhorn, David.  “Fatherless America.” Sundance Choice: For Writing Across the Curriculum.  Ed. Mark Connelly. United States: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. 203-207. Print

Hymowitz, Kay. “As America Changes, ‘Manhood’ Does, Too.” Transcript of radio 
            interview. Talk of the Nation. Natl. Public Radio. 28 Feb 2011. America’s 
            News. NewsBank. Web. 8 Jul. 2011.

All gave some and some gave allAnd some stood through for the red, white and blueAnd some had to fallAnd if you ever think of meThink of all your liberties and recall


Some gave all

God Is Good, All The Time

Funny how God gives us what we need, just when we need it. Due to the large amount of time that I spend in the car, I have the opportunity to listen to quite a bit of preaching on the radio. Between that and church, I have come to some basic understandings about this world that I missed until now. And they seem kind of important.

1. The world is not as it should be.
   In the beginning, God created a perfect world. But this world is fallen and things are no longer “good”. Creation and creatures groan together with us for a renewal of the perfection that God created (Rm 8:19-25). Remember the verse that says that if people stopped praising God, the very rocks would cry out? (Luke 19:40) I imagine it as if our very soul writhes in anguish to be renewed. And this doesn't apply only to Christians; many people are searching for a truth that is beyond their grasp. I love the book of Ecclesiastes; “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” It is not possible to be content, in the truest meaning of that word, with what we see around us.
2. God is at work.
   Many men in the Bible have seen this irony and hopelessness around us. Habakkuk brought his concerns to God and received an answer. “I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” (Hab. 1:5) “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7) God is active today, doing things you know nothing about. God was busy yesterday, will orchestrate things tomorrow, and one day will restore all things.
3. Our daily life should be waiting on God … and being excited about it!
   So, what does that mean for today? Ecclesiastes concludes “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccl 12:13-14) We know that God sees us, and that justice will be served and rewards given. We also have abundant hope. This world is not our home. Sure, we live here, work here, play here, but we don't belong here. We can excitedly wait for when we go home to be with God.

Of course, it is easier to look up when there is nothing down here to hold our attention, and that is not often the case. As a twenty year old all ready to take on the world, I don't often enjoy thoughts of leaving this world for what is as yet unknown, blissful as it may be. But that is ok. The good things in this life are from God too. He has given them to us, and wants us to enjoy them.

I heard a really interesting observation the other day on a DVD series for A Case for Creation. It was either Lee Strobel or a scientist he was interviewing who said that the location of planet earth is set up in such a way as to encourage exploration. We have a transparent atmosphere, we are located in just the right portion of the Milky Way, and due to the size of and distances to the sun and moon, we have perfect eclipses that have allowed great leaps in scientific knowledge. Imagine, God set up the world so that we can learn and discover.

God is not only a God of hope for suffering people, but a God of life for those who are living. “Hearken diligently unto me [God], and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Is 55:2). I have always thought of Is 40:29-31 as a beautiful verse for old people. “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” As a young person, this passage always made me a little nervous. But just think, there are times when I feel totally unbeatable. I can do anything! I can go anyplace! God's strength doesn't even compare to that. It goes so far beyond!

So I know that this world isn't the way it is supposed to be.  God is working, and sometimes things go great, and sometimes they go ok, and sometimes they're miserable.  But every day, I can remember that He is my unending source of strength, the one who made a world for me to discover, a judge who sees everything I do and think, the assurance of a better tomorrow, and a hope on whom I can depend.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

A Search Begun

What is life all about? We can search for adventure, for health, for companionship, for money, for respect. But in the end, what really matters? It is said that the chief end of man is to bring glory to God, and this sounds like a noble ambition. I mean, how could something like that be wrong? But how, exactly, does one do this? What can I do today to bring glory to God?

Does it matter to God what I eat for lunch? What pair of shoes I picked out this morning? The joke I laughed at in class? So I shared my notes with a guy from class, should I have shared the Gospel too? Or is that just weird?

I resolve to answer these questions. I want to know the truth.