Less is More

From Proverbs 1:19:

When you grab all you can get, that's what happens:
the more you get, the less you are.

Because I've been painting rooms in my house (we're downsizing, so getting it ready to sell), I've been listening to things. I love lectures on TED. They're always interesting. And it fills my mind with good stuff, not the junk I would hear if I just listened to the radio or the tv.

Anyway, I caught Rick Warren's talk about what happened to him after he wrote "The Purpose Driven Life." This is the second time I'd heard it, and I was repeating it because I enjoyed it so much the first time.

Something he said really struck me. He was talking about all the money that quite literally poured in from the book, because the book was so successful. He said this: "Every time I give, it breaks the grip of materialism on my life."

I'd never thought of it that way. Giving what I have to others breaks the hold that wanting more has on my life.

Wow.

So it's true -- when you want more, when you grab for more, more, more, what ends up happening is that materialism has you imprisoned. The wanting of the stuff overshadows the person in you that God has created. And God's Spirit in you becomes less and less as you pursue more and more stuff, influence, power, position.

There's a line I love from a movie I saw once. The movie was "Black Widow -- and the quote was this: "Rich is funny. It's never quite enough."

Could that be a truer statement? Again, Rick Warren, "significance doesn't come from status, because you can always find somebody who's got more than you."

Less truly is more. When you're planning to sell a house, the less stuff you show off, the better it looks.

So Lord, thank you for bringing this concept home to me today. Room painted, and pun intended.

xoxox