One of America’s great treasures was a man name Henry David Thoreau. A thinker, writer, naturalist, and transcendentalist of the 1800s, he is most famous for taking more than two years out of his life, moving out from the city of Concord, Massachusetts, and building a cabin on Walden Pond. His book, “Walden,” is an American classic.
Part of his experiment was to see how to live simply and free of the trappings most of us think we need. He discovered by working a couple hours each day fishing and gardening, he could provide for most of his needs, thus freeing him for wandering, reading, writing, or whatever he set his mind toward. Over time he came to feel sorry for those around him, noting that while they might think they owned houses and farms, in reality the houses and farms owned the people. He said, “Our houses are such unwieldly property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.”
I know people like that. They have monthly house payments larger than the amount my father would have paid to purchase an entire home. It is easy to become so surrounded by our possessions that we are choked by them. Instead of feeling like we own them, we are commanded by them. We cannot find time, or money, for things that are breaking on our soul’s horizon. It is, indeed, like a prison.
In this condition we cannot follow the urging of the Spirit—toward change, toward generosity, or toward anything that doesn’t continue to feed the beast we have created. That is why the image of the steward is so important. We don’t manage our possessions. We manage ourselves as disciples, according to divine mission and leading. What others are doing is of less importance than what God is calling us toward. We come to know that if we are too crowded by things to help, to give, to serve, to worship—to live!—then we are living beyond our Christian means.
Perhaps this week we could look at our lives, pick one thing that is more of a load than a lift, and make a prayer-filled plan for taking it off the front burner, if not setting it aside entirely. We could do this in our congregations, as well, since we know that our churches are as encumbered as their members. This isn’t easy, but it can be freeing.
Take it from Thoreau. That freedom is worth the price.
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Glenn Howell
Director of Development
Heartland Methodist Foundation