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June and I are beginning to see the decluttering, minimalist message everywhere. I’ve written recently about getting rid of stuff and also about decluttering our technology. The other day we saw a documentary called Minimalism. I recommend it.

Minimalism opens with scenes of people trampling one another at a Black Friday sale, and a guy comes on talking about how his mission in life was to get a good job and buy all the “toys” he could. It reminded me of my friend and Navigator mentor Skip Gray who used to say, “The happy unbelievers roaring around out there seem to have it made except for one thing. They have no purpose.”

And these folks were discovering that all the buying didn’t even make them happy. One college professor who has studied the problem said something like, “Why would you try to be happy by buying more of what you don’t even want?”

Of course, Jesus and the Bible are way ahead as usual:

And [Jesus] said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12.15, ESV)

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6.10, NKJV)