my story + an invitation

In February of 2016, I took a trip to India for the 5th time in 10 years. This trip wasn’t unusual, in fact, I had visited the same parts of Andhra Pradesh the previous year, but this trip changed something within me with a straightforward question.  As I reconnected with familiar faces and stayed with dear friends leading a fantastic ministry all over the state of Andhra Pradesh I asked myself one question.

“Can I keep on living my life the way I do when I have friends who live the way they do?”

Let me give you some context.  I’m a pastor in Long Beach, California. I live in Southern California, one of the wealthiest places on earth. I’m married and have one 3-year-old son.  My wife and I own one 1200 square foot home, 2 cars, 2 refrigerators, 1 microwave, 1 stove, 3 beds, 2 couches, a wardrobe full of clothes, coats, shoes-boots-sandals, bookshelves, boxes full of books, 2 computers, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, boxes of toys, a garage full of camping gear, extra stuff, 2 bikes and a trailer along with toys for our son to play with and 1 washer and 1 dryer.  The list goes on.  It does.  I know because I think about this stuff all the time.  Especially as I ate in my friend's homes in India, houses that had one bed for six people, one room for an entire household, one fire pit for a stove and no refrigerator or sink.  

On this trip, I began to experience India differently.  It’s one thing to see people as different than you and culture as strange, and it’s another to recognize we are all brothers and sisters, we are friends.  We love each other.

As I began to see them as friends, real friends, I began to think about what life would look like back home if I had friends who lived like this at home. Simple. Contextual. A life fitting for rural poor India.  

Should their life change the way I live?

This question wasn’t coming from a place of guilt. It was coming from a real place of reflection.  If I had a friend in need in Long Beach, I would sacrifice what I have for their lack. This is how I’ve learned to live over the years.

Sometimes it's merely extra food for dinner, and sometimes it's listening to the painful story of loss. Sometimes it’s a few hundred dollars for friends to visit relatives during a time of crisis, sometimes it's letting someone detox on your couch, or groceries for the week, but whatever it is, meaningful friendship costs something. 

Meaningful friendship changes you. You can’t just keep on living as if there’s nothing wrong when a friend is in need or hurting; friends help each other, friends provide for each other.

These friends in rural India weren’t necessarily in need. They had what they needed. But, something about the way they lived, something about their generous life and their simple way of living struck me. 

As that question rattled around in my head, I reread a story in the Scriptures. I’ve read this story many times, I’ve taught this story at church a few times. But, as I listened to Jesus speak through a 2000-year-old text, I realized how often I had read the story for some spiritual nugget rather than for the meaning of the text. 

Luke 18:“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

After talking to a righteous and blessed man about what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says, “to sell everything you have and give it to the poor. “ The rich guy walks away from Jesus, and he says, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

“How hard it is for the rich!!!???”  (emphasis added)

This statement stuck in my soul.  All of a sudden I realized, I’m the rich young ruler.  

1 % of the world has a computer, 

1 % has a college education, 

7% have a car. 

3.7 billion people live on less than a $1 a day. 

I have a car, a bike, and a skateboard;  a computer, an iPhone and an iPad; I have central heating and air conditioning, tiled shower,  a full pantry,  a spare bedroom, a closet full of clothes,  and a garage full of stuff; I have a bank account and a retirement plan, I have boxes and a kindle library full of books.  I’m as rich as they come!

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”

This is where the journey began. I was confronted with the Scriptures and meaningful relationships, and I had to make a decision.  Let what I experienced in India and what God was stirring in me through the Word to simply be released and let go of, a passing moment— therefore going back to my old ways of life.  Or, do I sit in the discomfort and allow this stirring to change me?

I chose to let it change me.  This began to change the direction of my life and change the way I thought about the world. It started to change my mind.  Or one could say, I began to repent.   Repent- to change one’s mind. I began to think differently about all the excess, all my possessions, all my time, all my energy and all my resources. 

I began to question what my values were and how I was reflecting my values in my everyday life.   My wife and I started to eliminate clutter, eliminate excess, eliminate waste and unnecessary, frivolous things. We began to align our hearts, our time, our wallets and energy to what mattered most.

We are just getting started on this and have a long way to go, but I would like to share some observations on what we’ve experienced and how you might be able to join me on this journey. 

It’s an invitation to discover less is greater than more.

Along the way I have discovered through the intentional pursuit of less, there is an abundance of intimacy, joy, peace, and friendship.  I have found more significant meaning in life as I have moved away from owning more things.