A God-Honoring Lifestyle, Part 5
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a six-part series of articles about maintaining a God-honoring lifestyle, excerpted from, Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn.
Why Live More Simply?
There are thousands of ways to live more simply. We can buy used cars rather than new, modest houses rather than expensive ones. We don't have to replace old furniture just for appearances. We can mend and wear old clothes, shop at thrift stores, give up recreational shopping, use fewer disposables, cut down on expensive convenience foods, and choose less expensive exercise and recreation. Some of us can carpool, use public transportation, or a bike instead of a car or second car. But these are things few of us will do unless we have clear and compelling reasons.
We should live more simply and give more generously because heaven is our home. I talk about heaven in nearly all my books, fiction and nonfiction. We've lost sight of our citizenship in heaven, and it's hurt us in countless ways. In fact, the single greatest deterrent to giving—and to living more simply—is the illusion that this world is our home.
Suppose your home were in France and you were visiting the United States for eighty days, living in a hotel. Furthermore, suppose there's a rule that says you can't take anything back to France on your flight home, nor can you ship anything or carry back money with you. But while you're in America, you can earn money and send deposits to your bank in France.
Question: Would you fill your hotel room with expensive furnishings and extravagant wall hangings? Of course not. Why? Because your time in America is so short, and you know you can't take it with you. It's just a hotel room! If you're wise, you'll send your treasures home, knowing they'll be waiting for you when you arrive.
We're only on earth for approximately eighty years—or sixty or forty or less. In the big picture, that's not much more than eighty days. Scripture says, "Each man's life is but a breath" (Psalm 39:5). Life here is like vapor breathed out on a cold day. Here one moment, gone the next. We're here on earth on a short-term visa. It's about to expire! Don't spend too much time, money, and energy on your hotel room when, instead, you can send it on ahead.
We should live more simply and give more generously—because it frees us up and shifts our center of gravity. Copernicus sparked a revolution when he proved that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth. Giving will spark a Copernican revolution in the lives of Christians who understand that life doesn't revolve around the things of earth. In giving, we surrender our possessions to their proper center of gravity: God. Life no longer revolves around houses and land and cars and things. It revolves around God's kingdom in heaven. By giving, we relocate our treasures from earth to heaven. Giving and the simpler living that results when we give breaks us out of Money's orbit and sets up for us a new center of gravity, in heaven.
Giving and simpler living loosen the grip of materialism on our lives. Giving away what we don't need is the greatest cure for affluenza. How can we expect to embrace the Christian experience of Paul, Luther, Wesley, Müller, Carmichael, Taylor, and a host of others without also embracing their attitude toward possessions and the simpler lifestyle it fostered? We should live more simply and give more generously because we're God's pipeline.
Faith & Finance Perspective:
When you’re first starting out as an individual, couple, or a new family, it’s pretty easy to live simply. In most cases, you’re just making sure you can pay your rent or mortgage, keep the lights and heat on, and store enough food in the fridge to make it through the month. Your furniture is probably handed down, purchased from a thrift store, or donated by a friend who was finally able to upgrade their own. Your car is likely used, aging, and just reliable enough to get you to work and back and get the kids to school.
But as you look to the future, the natural tendency will be to upgrade and expand—whether you need to or not—as your household income increases. There is certainly nothing wrong with replacing a sofa when it’s become threadbare, or a car that is clearly on its last legs or can no longer safely seat your growing family. And there’s no crime in expanding your diet beyond Ramen noodles and bargain lunch meat. But how do we address our natural human tendency to attain and acquire things we don’t actually need?
The antidote? Finding contentment and gratitude in what we have. There’s genuine joy in simplicity that can easily be forfeited as we clutter our lives with unnecessary possessions and the strain they place on our financial health.
As you sit in this fleeting stage of uncluttered simplicity, how can you guard yourself against the affluenza-driven complexities that will inevitably come your way? How can keeping your eyes on your eternal prize help you avoid these common pitfalls and enable you to practice the kind of Kingdom generosity that will lead more people into that hope of eternity?
A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.
- 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (MSG)