The beauty of simplicity

I bought some knock-off Tommy Hilfiger dock shoes for around
$12 in Lima, Peru in 2002. I can’t wear the darn things out, so I keep
wearing them. It’s part of my overall
commitment to live simply.
Ghandi showed
us how it’s done and the power of his example was so great that he turned India
upside down.

Something inside us presses for bigger and better. Why buy a van when you can get an SUV? And why buy an SUV when a fully loaded
Expedition can be had for just $100 more a month?

I’m not saying you’re a sinner if you own an SUV. We’re all entitled to make personal
choices. What’s right for one person may
not be for another. Goodness knows we
need to stop judging people. What I am
saying is this: there is beauty in simplicity.
Jesus lived simply. He gave us
the example of a homeless man who was able to focus on ministry partly because
he was not encumbered with a lot of stuff he needed to take care of.

Within a couple of years, the debt loads we carry in America
will at last catch up with us, causing the dollar to crash and forcing the
simpler lifestyle Jesus modeled whether we like it or not. Rising interest rates and the slow popping of
the real estate bubble are just the start. We’ve been living beyond our means for too long.