Note: The program we were using to keep the Periscope videos is shutting down so we will be moving to blog posts instead of Periscope videos each Monday for our book club!
The Lord has orchestrated the sequence of these chapters in the craziest of ways as we have gone through the book club for The Finishing School! Each one seems to line up with where my heart is either learning new things or struggling.
Last month, I felt like God was trying to teach me so much about not needing “the stuff” that I so desperately love. He put it on my heart to meditate on Matthew 6:19-21.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
As we open up to read A Guide to Minimalism this week, I have to share what I’ve learned this past month about the heart side of this. It’s so much more than just having a decluttered home.
I dug into this passage and here were some choppy thoughts that came to mind:
How attached to my things am I?
If I have them:
- temporary security
- temporary happiness
- source of identity
If I lose them:
- worry/fear/frustration
- uncomfortableness
- feeling not myself
I don’t want my joy or contentment to be dependent on these things I KNOW will not last forever. This might seem like an extreme way to approach minimalism, but I have to discover WHY I let things take over my life if I ever have hopes to make permanent change.
This month, I lost one of my cousins. She died unexpectedly from an unknown heart condition while serving with the Missionaries of Charity in Mexico. Tyler refers to this order as the Navy Seals of orders. They give up nearly every earthly possession to serve the poor. I remember before Claire left to join a year and a half ago, her saying she invited her friends to come over and go through her clothes and take whatever they wanted because she wouldn’t need them anymore. She also threw out all her makeup. To me, a stuff-loving girl, all I could think was how hard that would be to do myself. And also, how silly it was that it would be so hard on me.
I subconsciously put this burden on her thinking of how she must feel like she is missing out making so many sacrifices. But y’all, we got to see her for Christmas and she was so content. And if it wasn’t written all over her face, about a month before her death she had called her dad and told him how happy she was doing what she was doing.
This joy Claire had wasn’t because of things. It was because her treasure was in heaven. Her joy wasn’t dependent on things that rust or get destroyed like mine can be. I backed my car into a 2X4 post and did serious damage to my bumper and it WRECKED my week! I was so frustrated. Our washer broke earlier this month and it’s been the biggest headache. Yea, I need a car and definitely find it nice not washing clothes by hand, but do small things you own that get ruined cause this too?
Can we stop multiplying these things that will eventually all rust or get destroyed? That will cause us more frustration to replace than we’d ever care to admit? Can we remember that another tchotchke for our mantel is not the holy grail of a month long online shopping or Home Goods search?
As you read this chapter this week, think about WHY minimalism has been so hard to implement no matter how much you’d like to. Get to the heart of it. And then, get rid of some stuff.
Minimalism Resource: My friend Valerie Keinsley keeps me inspired to live minimalistically. She chronicles her journey of minimalism on her instagram and blog! Definitely worth checking out if you need some practical inspiration!!
Photo credit: Holly Joy Holt
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