My wife likes the concept of minimalism. In the course of researching an assignment she was writing on the subject we had many discussions on what that looks like and how it might work in the real world. Minimalism is defined by one author as, "pursuing your greatest passions by owning fewer things," it is living a more simple, uncluttered life. To be honest, I get the attraction, but I am also engaged in a seemingly more irreducibly complex contemporary life. So although there really is a part of me that would like to simplify and declutter, the culture in which I live and the world it informs tells it just isn't possible.
Enter the minimalist text editor!
Thanks to the advent of the new iPad the second generation came down in price to the degree that I fulfilled the desires of my heart and bought one. And I love it as much as I always thought I would! In researching how people handled their workflow on the iPad I discovered that many writers used simple text editors for the production of blogs, articles and even longer works. Typically, I thought I'd give it a go. So I acquired one for the princely sum of $0.99 from the app store and set to work. Magic!! The focus on the written word was gratifying and mesmerizing, without distraction the page drew me in, and coupled with the intimacy of typing on the iPad saw me hammer out over four thousand words of a writing project in one day - and thoroughly enjoy the experience.
If minimalism can work to make me - yes, even me! - more productive in writing, what might that mean in other areas of my life? Don't worry, I haven't jumped on the band-wagon and embraced a minimalist lifestyle, but I have been thinking about what that could mean in my ministry and my faith.
Jesus was a minimalist. He took the six hundred odd laws of first century Jusaism, and the hundreds of interpretations of those laws, and reduced them to two, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself." That's pretty minimal! He lived a simple life, taught a simple message, and inaugurated a kingdom movement that has transformed the world.
Paul wrote, "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." (1 Tim. 6:6-8) In Micah we read, "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." All pretty simple stuff. (In the direction, if not the implementation....)
With these thoughts in my mind I asked myself: How can such minimalism assist in our lives? Will it allow us to focus on the important? In what way can we use such a focus and simplicity in our lives of faith and our spiritual formation? What could this mean? What 'productivity' or benefits could be released in our lives?
I read this on Neil Cole's blog, "There is something very powerful about the editing process that creates a simple and yet potent thing. It is not just about what is excluded, but about what you deem so significant that it is included, that makes an idea potently simple." That is an incredible thought, that the power isn't in the exclusion, but what is deemed so significant that it is included! In this terribly complex life, what things do I consider so significant, so important that I cannot do without them?
It seems to me that we have lost the art of contentment. I don't mean to just settle for your lot in life, but it seems that enough is never really enough in the consumerist world in which we live. There is more to life than just food and shelter, that isn't the issue, the question is how much more? What things, what desires, what goals, what activities are actually choking the significant things in life? In a world where arrogant celebrities are idolized, where is the space to humbly walk before God? Might simplicity, minimalism, decluttering actually leave more room for true spiritual formation, personal growth and meaningful relationships?
We live at a time when busy-ness is worn as a badge of honor and our personal worth and significance is attached to what and how much we do. But is that right? Is humanity becoming more fulfilled and finding satisfaction, or more stressed and malcontent with our frantic yearning for more? Is being busier improving our lives, or are the activities in which we engage just eating up the few years we have on this planet?
I'm not a minimalist. I sit typing on my iPad in my house surrounded by my possessions. And yet there is, in the simplicity of the concept, an alluring attraction to be more by having and doing less. Perhaps that's why, as a start, I'm using this basic text editor.....
