Freedom of Simplicity & Marie Kondo

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship,
it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes

 or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion.

There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach,

more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description,

 careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

Matthew 6:25-34 The Message

It must be close to thirty years since Christian writer Richard Foster wrote Freedom of Simplicity. I used this book as a source for a study group back then and through the years I included simplicity as an essential aspect of the spiritual life in sermons and study groups. I notice that the last occasion was in 2013 for a series called Silence, Solitude, Sanctuary, and Simplicity. I defined simplicity as the “clearing” of our hearts and minds so that what we can be aware of what matters most.

In 2019 the megastar of simplicity is Marie Kondo, who is everywhere, including her Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. If it's possible to advocate ruthlessness, gently, she does. If your stuff isn't bringing you joy, let it go. This is an over-simplification of her approach (nuck, nuck) but you can check it out yourself with a Google search.


Hey, I appreciate what's she's saying and I've lived it to a modest degree. When we moved six years ago we discarded an astonishing amount of stuff, including leftovers from adult children and my mother which found its way into our basement. When I retired in 2017 hundreds of books found new homes and many more since then, including my copy of Freedom of Simplicity. We have been sorting through reams of paper which once seemed important which have now been consigned to the recycling bin. Clothing? A lot of professional work duds is now gone, no longer necessary. And yet there is plenty more that could go!

What occurs to me as I listen to the gushy and perhaps deserved praise for Kondo is that there is nothing new under the sun. Remember the popularity of the Hoarders TV series? And while the gurus surface every few years to help us simplify, I cynically wonder if its akin to a fad diet. As a culture we are addicted to our stuff and the next new thing. And in churches, just look around at the piles of holy hardware junk that folk just won't discard.

Surely there is a spiritual component to simplicity, and we should pay attention to the importance of the change of heart as well as the disposal of material goods. As the hymn says:

Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

Come and Find the Quiet Centre

Paul McCartney has a new climate change song, "Despite Repeated Warnings." Today's Groundling blog

https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2019/01/despite-repeated-warnings-sir-paul.html