How to Live the Simple Life

Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you? This question can have profound consequences on your life if you decide to follow it through to its conclusions. It can be said, fairly, that the United States, like many other nations in the world, is a consumer society. Here, and elsewhere, the buying and selling of goods and services is considered by many to be the most important social and economic activity.

How much this is the case likely became quite clear when the pandemic hit, and the various ways in which nations of the world sought to maintain that social and economic activity of buying and selling. In a contactless world, delivery services boomed to accommodate all the buying and selling that still needed to happen to keep economies afloat.

The problem with materialism and consumerism.

There’s a scene in the Jim Carrey movie The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in which Carrey’s Grinch makes a salient point about how our society makes a commodity out of everything, and that includes how Christmas itself has become more about the gifts we give and get than about the Gift that God gave us of His son Jesus. In a bit of a rant, the Grinch says to the community of the Whos gathered in the town square,

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? That’s what it’s always been about. Gifts, gifts… gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts! You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I’m saying? In your garbage. I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the av

rice… The avarice never ends! “I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make GLUE!” Look, I don’t wanna make waves, but this whole Christmas season is…stupid, stupid, stupid! – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Universal Pictures, 2000

You could say that this is a spicy take on Christmas, but there are some nuggets of truth in these words. Often, we clamor for things, and they can attain a pride of place in our lives as we strive to obtain them.

We work hard for them, possibly sacrificing our families and our health to pursue them, and then once we have them, we can discard them just as easily for something bigger, shinier, and newer. Today’s gifts easily become tomorrow’s garbage.

The problem with materialism and consumerism is that it draws us to tie our sense of value or worth to the stuff we have. When you attach your value to an object, your sense of self and how you feel about yourself rises and falls with that object. When something newer or better comes along, it makes sense to get that thing to feel relevant and to tap into whatever social cache that object possesses. It’s a never-ending cycle.

The stuff we surround ourselves with can promise to bring us joy, but it doesn’t deliver as promised. There may be a fleeting moment of joy as you make a purchase or as you open that box, but that joy doesn’t last and often leads to yet another purchase, and on and on it goes. All the while, we work harder to keep up with our lifestyle choices, which gives us little time to invest in the relationships and things that bring us deeper fulfillment.

Moving beyond materialism and consumerism to the simple life.

Valuing ourselves and our lives based on what we own is a losing enterprise. We were made for more, and there is never going to be enough stuff in the world to satisfy the God-shaped hole in our hearts. The desire for meaning and purpose cannot be satisfied by accumulating things. It’s like trying to satisfy the desire for good company by eating food; it might distract you for a while, but it’s not going to address the real issue.

The things you own can claim our allegiance, and one result of this is that we become more anxious. Instead of being happier, acquiring more stuff makes us more anxious; anxious to get more, anxious to keep and protect what we have, and so on. Consuming as a way of life draws us into daily rituals that end up drawing away our time and other valuable resources like money.

One of the many things that Jesus said was, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV). Moving beyond our stuff requires the understanding that our lives are about more than what we own.

What you own cannot and should not define you, because your worth resides in something intangible: your dignity as the creation of a good God (Genesis 1:26-27, Psalm 8; Psalm 139:13-18).

Part of why we acquire so much is due to our inner squirrel. We want to secure ourselves against an uncertain future by having tangible things to hold on to. Instead, we can look with trust to God who provides for us, and not be anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

True feelings of happiness are better elicited by our experiences and not our belongings, so we can prioritize things like being with family and friends over having the latest gadgets.

If you find yourself struggling with acquiring things and holding onto them, reach out today to talk with a counselor at Encinitas Christian Counseling who can address any underlying issues with anxiety that may be driving it. Additionally, someone like a life coach can work with you to help you declutter your life and focus on what matters most to you and your well-being.