Minimalism is like a Swiss army knife diet in the hand of a materialistic glutton. It’ll help you get the job done in the way you need to get the job done, if of course you’re a materialistic glutton like me. But like every tool, we need to know what it’s made for. The following quote comes from “The Minimalists”, Joshua and Ryan.
“Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.” – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
First, the good. Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from what? Depends on what you apply the tool to. As I have argued elsewhere it should be freedom from thoughtless consumerism. But that’s not all The Minimilists propose of it’s purpose. They go further than that. Hence, the bad. They say minimalism will help you find freedom from a whole bunch of existential problems, which they sum up as finding “real freedom”.
I got a problem with this and hopefully you do too. You’re not going to get real freedom from minimalism. You’re going to get a helpful tool which you will need to apply to your own ends. But if you think minimalism will be the ratchet to lever open the Pandora’s box of “life’s purpose”, then expect a sad face emoji. Minimalism is not simply the opposite of materialism and the existential angst that is hidden in materialism’s terms and conditions. When it comes to materialism (and I speak at a popular level) we think that the world and all that there is in it is all there is to life, that includes immaterial things such as our own personal relationships and happiness. In materialism, we think happiness can be gained chiefly or only from the world in front of us. Perhaps you can see where I’m taking this. Minimalism can be a form of materialistic consumerism. As a minimalist, one could see value chiefly and ultimately in human relationships and experiences. This is merely an ironic substitution. So minimalism can be a form of materialistic consumerism of purchased goods, just replace the goods with “health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.”
To love ourselves or to love each other more than anything else is a grave error. Our chief love is to be the love of God. If this is your end, your set goal, then certainly minimalism may be a tool to this end. If this is not your end or your chief goal, then minimalism will only continue to fail you and harm you while all the time claiming “to set you free”.
True freedom is in Christ and Christ alone. As the Lord Jesus says,
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36).
Free from what? Free from our petty consumerism? No. It is much more profound than that.
“Truly, truly, I (Jesus) say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
It’s freedom from sin, the root cause of all the issues, which is found in Christ. And of course it’s not just freedom from something, but freedom for something. The goal stated by many minimalists is to have freedom from “stuff” to better their “relationships” and gather “experiences”. This is good but let’s be more specific. The one relationship that matters more than any other is our relationship with the Lord. Let us be free from our “stuff” that we might fulfil the greatest commandment,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37–39).
In loving the Lord more than anything else, what will follow will be the benefits of earthly contentment. As the apostle Paul says,
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11–13).
Having a robust understanding of the riches of Christ will make all of our earthly concerns for satisfaction and contentment pale in comparison (whether we are rich or poor). Not only is having a good understanding of Christ’s majesty the antidote to unhealthy worldly attachments, but it’s also the gym equipment that we use to be strengthened for our earthly marathon. As the apostle Paul says elsewhere,
“Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” (1 Tim. 6:6–7).
To free ourselves from the love of money and possessions doesn’t have in mind the ultimate end. We must ascribe to minimalism an ultimate end that is worthy of the highest scrutiny. Because even in the face of death, owning little or owning lots will change nothing. But in the face of death with Christ as saviour, owning little or owning lots with godliness is great gain now and true riches in the life hereafter.
Bigvai and Shiphrah 