Last month I participated in a silent retreat at Holy Cross Monastery. Yes, you read that correctly. I voluntarily signed up and went on a retreat at which no one talked for days on end. And yes, there were other people at this retreat. Twenty-five of us or so went
Note: This is a guest post by Meghan Davis-Brass, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Newton, Iowa, where she also teaches yoga and lives with her husband and dog. Meghan has entirely too much stuff and considers this one of her primary spiritual struggles. Then Jesus called the twelve together
Consumer culture is incredibly prevalent in the U.S., so much so that we often assume automatically that more is better. We are encouraged to spend our time, energy, and financial resources on accumulating more and more material possessions, while also continuously being dissatisfied so that we keep buying and consuming
In August, my husband Will and I went on a cruise with my parents. These family trips used to be a tradition (happening about every other year), but because of personal schedules and the pandemic, we hadn’t been on a trip together in five years. On our last trip five
It’s no secret that businesses and consumer culture use all sorts of tactics to get us to buy more stuff. We see a lot of these tactics in advertisements and how consumer culture functions– appealing to our base needs, manufacturing a sense of urgency, and perpetuating a sense of dissatisfaction
It’s easy to get into the habit of thinking about life and the events happening around you in very specific ways. We cling to tried-and-true thought processes because it’s easier than expending more thought energy to think in a different way. But living more simply as a Christian minimalist means
A few years ago, attorney Albert Hessberg III (brother-in-law to famous singer/songwriter James Taylor) was disbarred and sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for stealing over two million dollars from his clients. What’s so fascinating about Hessberg is that no one really understands why he felt the
A few years ago, I took intentional steps to break my addiction to online shopping. When I was going through that process, I peeled back the layers of why I became addicted in the first place. I discovered that– at core of it– my issue was discontent. Contentment and Consumer
Imagine: you’re in the checkout line, and you see something small and inexpensive on display. Without thinking, you grab it and buy it. It’s cheap, it’s quick, and it’s easy to grab and add to your purchases. If it’s a consumable, you pop it in your mouth right after you
Note: This post is an excerpt from the book Christian Minimalism: Simple Steps for Abundant Living. One of the major reasons that many Christians hesitate to live out radical generosity and serve others is a pervasive American heresy called the “prosperity gospel,” which proclaims that wealth and health and success