The time has finally come.
As I stare at my 50 L pack and the pile of stuff I have gathered over the last month, I shake my head in disbelief and embarrassment.
I’m not sure what happened this month as far as accumulating stuff, but between the thrift shops and Compassion warehouse, my stack of clothes grew into a small mound.
As I stare at the pile now, it grosses me out. It’s all just junk, I think.
Most of it I can’t take it with me anyway.
Slowly I started pulling out shirts I went a month without wearing, sweaters I won’t need in California, and bags that are cute but completely unnecessary.
Why did I waste my money on any of it, even if was just a few Euros here and there?
I had everything I needed coming into this month. My Patagonia sweatshirt and Birkenstocks were sufficient and this stuff had only made my life more cluttered.
The one truth I’ve realized this year is that LESS IS MORE.
I’ve honestly loved living on so little. It’s so much simpler slipping on my favorite t-shirt instead of searching through a pile of ten similar ones. It feels good to browse through stores but walk away with nothing in my hands, confident I have everything I need. Every month I’m proud of how little my pack weighs and how easily I can carry it up a mountain.
But something switched when I got to Ireland and was surrounded again by Western department stores and peers dressed in leather boots and flowing summer dresses.
I was suddenly aware of my well-worn jeans and stretched out t-shirts and I started envisioning myself in other people’s outfits, thinking, “I want that.”. And slowly but surely, I began pulling out my credit card.
It hits me now as I stare at my pile how meaningless it all is.
I don’t need new clothes. They don’t define me, give me worth, or make me more beautiful. My worth is not in my appearance or what I choose to wear.
It’s all just an illusion. No one is going to love me any less if I show up in the same grungy brown t-shirts rather than if I were sporting fashion from all around the world.
I know the lie that they do isn't going to get any easier to fight when I step back into California and into a culture of designer jeans, consumerism, fast changing trends and excessive wealth.
So right now I’m speaking out the truth that I have everything I need.
Less really IS more.
And that goes for everything from shopping to eating, scheduling activities, drinking, even talking.
I want to consume less, and instead invest my money, my time and my heart into things with eternal value.
I pray that I live this truth out for the rest of my life;
So that when it’s all said and done and I look back on my life, I wont have a pile of stuff that I can’t take with me, but rather a life brimming with eternal significance.
