We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

4082110101_15584140ce

The Cost of Holding On

Given Greg’s recent Twitter comments on the question of how we view what we own, we thought this article in the New York Times was particularly timely. What is the cost of holding onto things? As we accumulate more and more possessions, do we pay a price beyond the actual price tag? Although this piece is not written from a Kingdom perspective, there’s a lot of wisdom here.

From the article:

When a man named Andrew Hyde began an adventure in minimalism, he only owned 15 things. It eventually moved to 39 and now it sits around 60. It all started when he decided to take a trip around the world and sell everything he didn’t need. As Mr. Hyde noted on his blog, it changed his life after a brief period of befuddlement:

I’m so confused by this. When we were growing up, didn’t we all have the goal of a huge house full of things? I found a far more quality life by rejecting things as a gauge of success.

Image by Kevin Utting. Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.

Category:
Tags: ,

Related Reading

A Brief Theology of Faith

It is often argued that Hebrews 11:1 provides us with a clear definition of faith. The NIV translates it as, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Most of the times when we use different translations of the Bible, the differences between them are about…

Remembering that We are Finite

Here’s a little reminder from Joshua Becker that we live with limited resources in the areas of “Money. Time. Energy. Attention. Physical Space. Relationships. Mental Capacity. Body. Talents. Natural Resources.” Let’s spend these things with wisdom and love. From the blog: This reality of our finiteness is an incredibly important truth. It is one we should intentionally choose to focus on…

Everybody’s Got a Prequel

My wife and I, along with some friends, recently attended the Broadway Play Wicked. Without giving too much away, I’ll tell you the play attempts to answer the question: What could have possibly made the “Wicked Witch of the West” so [apparently] evil (as presented in the original Wizard of Oz)? After all, normal young…

Kingdom Centeredness

A Silent Center white knuckles cling against peace and cries for release into chaos flying, centrifugal to death in attempt to salvage human breath for breathing,   through peeling purge that burns away flesh to white bone singed and aching   for skin new to inhale holy fire once again, until the timely scourge of…

Guest Post: Culture War Neighbors by Bonnie Kristian

Matteo Parrini via Compfight The first time I was aware of meeting a gay person, I was 18. I took a summer job waiting tables, and it turned out two of my coworkers were attracted to people of the same sex. One, a waiter in his 40s, fit every stereotype on Will and Grace. The…

Sermon Clip: Extravagant Forgiveness, Extravagant Love

Greg Boyd had the wonderful opportunity to guest speak at a great church in Carlisle, PA called Carlisle BIC. He spoke on the topic of forgiveness and love. In this short clip, Greg describes how a prostitute was being judged by the Pharisees, but Jesus came to her rescue. You can listen to the full…