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April 23 - May 12, 2025
advertising is propaganda. It might not be trying to get you to kill Jews, Gypsies, and LGBTQ people, but it is a multibillion-dollar industry that is intentionally designed to lie to you—to get you to believe that if you will only buy this or that product, then you will be happy. Or at least happier.
Instead of spending money to get time, we opted for the reverse: we spend time to get money.
You cannot serve both God and money.
Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
Then I started to question all the assumptions of my culture. I took Tyler Durden’s advice: “Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.” (And, yes, that was a quote from Fight Club.)
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
In Jesus’ day, if people said you had a “healthy” eye, it had a double meaning. It meant that (1) you were focused and living with a high degree of intentionality in life, and (2) you were generous to the poor. When you looked at the world, you saw those in need and did your best to help out. An “unhealthy” eye (or as the King James Version has it, an “evil” eye) was the exact opposite. When you looked out on the world, you were distracted by all that glitters and lost your focus on what really matters. In turn, you closed your fist to the poor.
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
God bless Marie Kondo, her work is great, but I would argue that “organizing” is antithetical to minimalism. If you have so much stuff that you have to organize it, box it up, label it, and stack it in a way that cuts down on space, then the odds are you have too much stuff!
Anything that does not add value to my life.42 Anything that does not “spark joy.”
When we see an ad, we stop and call out the lie. See that ad for a new Volvo? The model couple driving off into the Norwegian fjord? Ha. Good one. As if buying that car will make us look like models. The truth is…
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Rules make me feel safe. When I know the rules, I breathe easy.
Since then the catchphrase has become the “dumbphone.” As in, well, you get it. There’s no official checklist, but here’s what we suggest: Take email off your phone. Take all social media off your phone, transfer it to a desktop, and schedule set times to check it each day or, ideally, each week. Disable your web browser. I’m a bit lenient on this one since I hate surfing the web on my phone and use this only when people send me links. But this is typically a key facet of a dumbphone. Delete all notifications, including those for texts. I set my phone so I have to (1) unlock it and (2) click
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Do not have email on your phone. Do not glance at it when you get a free moment in the elevator or in a boring meeting. Do not answer random emails throughout the day. Instead: set a time to do email and stick to it. I have the luxury of doing email only once a week. Every Monday morning at ten o’clock, I open my inbox and don’t stop until I’m down to zero. For the rest of the week, I have an auto reply that basically says, I’ll get back to you on Monday.
Multitasking is the drive to be more than we are, to control more than we do, to extend our power and our effectiveness. Such practice yields a divided self, with full attention given to nothing.
one of the best ways to slow down your overall pace of life is to literally slow down your body. Force yourself to move through the world at a relaxed pace.
Breathe in love, breathe out the anger… Breathe in joy, breathe out the sadness and pain… Breathe in peace, breathe out the anxiety and uncertainty of tomorrow… Breathe in patience, breathe out the hurry of my life…
Persons who meditate become people of substance who have thought things out and have deep convictions, who can explain difficult concepts in simple language, and who have good reasons behind everything they do. Many people do not meditate. They skim everything, picking and choosing on impulse, having no thought-out reasons for their behavior. Following whims, they live shallow lives.
If you can, take long vacations.
There’s more to life than an increase in speed. Life is right under our noses, waiting to be enjoyed. We must ruthlessly eliminate hurry, and that’s best done gamefully.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with [Jesus] forever in the next.
A contemporary of his, C. S. Lewis, in his already-quoted work of satire on spirituality, had the older, wiser demon say this of the “Enemy” (Jesus): The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity…. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present…or else obeying the present voice of conscience,
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All the great wisdom traditions of history, religious and secular, Eastern and Western, Christian and not, have come together on one point: if there’s a formula for a happy life, it’s quite simple – inhabit the moment.
