Season 4 - Episode 40
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
A good friend of mine ran a recording studio and was slowly building his gear list to serve his clients. We’d talk about his setup, and he’d be generally satisfied, but tell me, “I just need this one more thing.” Several months later, he’d acquire that piece of equipment and then confess, “Now, I just need this one more thing.” This happened a few times until it became a running joke. Eventually, he stopped making the joke because he realized that if he wanted to improve, there would always be “one more thing.” But he also realized that focusing on that “one more thing,” even in jest, served to rob him of appreciation for and joy in what he had. It is tempting for all of us to think this way, that we need "one more thing." And our society and economy are shaped to push us into that kind of thinking! Whether rich or poor, we are repeatedly told that “one more thing” can fill a hole, satisfy a longing, or make us happy - whether that thing is an object, experience, relationship, or accolade. This narrative is so strong that a competing story can seem almost ridiculous to us. But the heart of the value we’re talking about today is a competing narrative to the idea that we need to grab after more. We’re talking about the value of Living Simply in this Covenant Weekly for June 17, 2025.
Living Simply: We value uncluttered lives, which free us to love boldly, give generously, and serve joyfully.
Jesus tells the parable of an incredibly wealthy man. His crops produced an overabundance of harvest, and he needed to decide what to do with his wealth. The logical thing, he decided, was to build. In his telling, Jesus quoted the rich man this way, “I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
In response to this attitude of hoarding and satisfaction, God says, “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?”
Jesus sums up the parable by saying, “A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
Building bigger barns is the dominant wisdom of our day. Whether that be bigger houses, bigger companies, bigger bank accounts, bigger bucket list experiences, bigger travels, bigger parties, bigger is better. In church life, decades have been spent celebrating churches with larger buildings, higher budgets, more staff, and bigger attendance numbers.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus asks this related question, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”
The invitation to live simply is an invitation to dream a different dream. It’s an invitation to imagine a world where scarcity does not drive the agenda. Love and generosity do. Living simply isn’t just Marie Kondo minimalism for minimalism's sake. It is about uncluttering our lives - our finances, our stuff, our schedules, maybe even our relationships - so that we can love boldly, give generously, and serve joyfully.
Good things, even beautiful things, can get in the way of the truly abundant life. Hard work can keep us from our families. Sports leagues can keep us from the Christian community. Overcommitment and overprogramming at church can keep us from loving our neighbours. Over-cluttering our lives in any way can keep us from living, giving, and serving in the best ways.
This value is an invitation for each of us to consider where we’ve made things overcomplicated and where we’ve moved away from trusting God as a result. And it may require imagining a whole new story about what is most important in life.
If you’re interested in a different story than the predominant narrative being told in our world, I’ve attached a link to a recent podcast episode. It is a mix of a lecture and subsequent conversations with Dr. Walter Brueggemann. Dr. Brueggeman passed away less than two weeks ago. He was a brilliant Old Testament scholar with an emphasis on the Prophets. In this talk and the interview questions, he invites us to recognize the primary narrative of our day and to be willing to imagine, embrace, and work to embody a godly alternative to it. It takes courage to do that, but I know that you, that we, are a people of courage!
https://www.nosmallendeavor.com/walter-brueggemann-the-prophetic-imagination
May God bless you as you consider how you can live simply this week, pursuing uncluttered lives, and being freed to love boldly, give generously, and serve joyfully.