WEBVTT 00:00.632 --> 00:04.875 [SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to Blessed and Boston, presented by Anchor DeMedia. 00:05.476 --> 00:11.522 [SPEAKER_00]: In entrepreneurship podcasts for Christians, all about how to make God the CEO of your business. 00:12.142 --> 00:19.329 [SPEAKER_00]: Get ready to be inspired, challenged, but well equipped to live and build your destiny, his way. 00:27.945 --> 00:31.688 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Blessed Embossed Up Podcasts. 00:32.409 --> 00:41.717 [SPEAKER_00]: We are picking up with our episode on simplicity based on John Markcomer's book, The Roofless Elimination of Hurray. 00:42.438 --> 00:47.942 [SPEAKER_00]: Before we pick up, quick order update for those of you who are hearing this for the first time. 00:48.543 --> 00:49.764 [SPEAKER_00]: I was moving. 00:50.485 --> 01:07.182 [SPEAKER_00]: And I put all of the products that I had left on sale because I just wanted to make sure they got in the right hands in those products like my book and others that are when like Amazon and things they'll stay there But those things are handled in another warehouse, but everything I had in my house 01:08.223 --> 01:09.403 [SPEAKER_00]: I needed to get rid of. 01:09.964 --> 01:15.965 [SPEAKER_00]: So I actually moved this past weekend and I brought the products with me but they cannot stay. 01:16.385 --> 01:21.147 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you have ever wanted to purchase my planner, that is for podcast. 01:21.167 --> 01:23.647 [SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you why I love the planner in particular. 01:24.548 --> 01:26.108 [SPEAKER_00]: Everything that I taught, 01:26.892 --> 01:32.880 [SPEAKER_00]: not just on how to start a podcast, but how to monetize and grow the podcast is within that planner. 01:32.920 --> 01:36.946 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not just somewhere for you to check off dates and take notes. 01:37.126 --> 01:40.931 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a whole workbook in the form of a planner. 01:41.683 --> 01:48.667 [SPEAKER_00]: I go into detail when how to monetize your podcast, how to charge advertisers. 01:48.787 --> 01:54.111 [SPEAKER_00]: I talk about how you should frame your content in a way that connects with your audience. 01:54.211 --> 01:54.991 [SPEAKER_00]: I teach on. 01:55.331 --> 01:59.734 [SPEAKER_00]: I call it shared value where you take into consideration with your audience needs and wants. 02:00.194 --> 02:28.840 [SPEAKER_00]: What your goals are and you find that middle because you never should be creating content That's just a hundred percent what you want to say and definitely not what's one hundred percent What your audience wants to say because if you focus only on you and your goals You're going to miss the people that's going to help get you there the folks who are listening to the podcast If you focus on your audience you will lose yourself in the purpose and why God called you to start that platform in the first place and so I go into that in the planner 02:29.680 --> 02:44.722 [SPEAKER_00]: people also would always ask me how to approach each individual episode like you got the podcast you haven't started but like what do you say and how do you say it there is a page that focus on outlining your episode 02:45.483 --> 02:51.266 [SPEAKER_00]: something I always teach is you should keep the main point of your episode top of mine. 02:51.506 --> 02:59.010 [SPEAKER_00]: So you know, if you know, hey, I'm here to teach people how to read their Bible and fully understand it. 02:59.411 --> 03:10.417 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever the message is, the core message and what you're trying to get your audience to put that at the top of your paper that you're using as your notes because you want to keep 03:13.178 --> 03:17.201 [SPEAKER_00]: because you want to make sure about the end of the episode, you accomplished what that goal was. 03:17.681 --> 03:28.149 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I have each of the episode sheets planned out in a way to help you organize your thoughts and be able to use it easily as your recording. 03:28.689 --> 03:36.935 [SPEAKER_00]: And as just so many other things, I have my marketing strategies that have been proven with over the 150 plus people I've worked with within that planner. 03:36.975 --> 03:41.138 [SPEAKER_00]: So I say, let's say it's not just a book with dates. 03:43.059 --> 03:45.001 [SPEAKER_00]: to help you grow your podcast. 03:45.061 --> 03:55.831 [SPEAKER_00]: And even though it's been years since I created it, many of the places you will go to today, many of the things that you will look up or folks that you will try to learn from. 03:56.881 --> 04:08.953 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been there done a bit like it all of the strategies plus some that I have seen tried and true with my clients in my own show are right there in that product. 04:08.973 --> 04:13.917 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you are a podcaster or looking to start a podcast, you need that. 04:14.598 --> 04:17.442 [SPEAKER_00]: When I was moving, because I told you guys, I did move this weekend. 04:17.902 --> 04:25.091 [SPEAKER_00]: When I was moving, I found some podcast mics and some other tools that I had from my podcast retreats. 04:25.532 --> 04:33.602 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to surprise some folks who purchase the planner specifically by putting some podcast microphones in. 04:34.182 --> 04:36.163 [SPEAKER_00]: I think I have like ring lights and other things. 04:36.223 --> 04:43.226 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to put some supplies in your package and I'm just going to do it randomly so I don't have to like organize how much I have and all that. 04:43.886 --> 04:48.007 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do it randomly and bless some folks who purchase the podcast planner. 04:48.668 --> 04:59.592 [SPEAKER_00]: And as for the other products, I still have my shoes on compromising book which also comes with a masterclass of you are a woman who wears many hats, a wife, a mom, a student, 05:00.252 --> 05:14.506 [SPEAKER_00]: insert title here, even if you're not married or have children, if you have a lot of responsibilities, and you are struggling with that harmony Definitely get that book, and then of course our god is my CEO prior journey. 05:14.526 --> 05:18.890 [SPEAKER_00]: I think I only have about like 60 or so of those left. 05:18.910 --> 05:20.892 [SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember how much of the planner or 05:21.690 --> 05:25.313 [SPEAKER_00]: book that I have, but I only have about 60 or so of those left. 05:25.633 --> 05:26.994 [SPEAKER_00]: And those are special edition. 05:27.634 --> 05:28.795 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't get those later. 05:28.975 --> 05:30.517 [SPEAKER_00]: Those are not available on Amazon. 05:30.557 --> 05:35.040 [SPEAKER_00]: Those are both specifically as a special edition product. 05:35.200 --> 05:37.221 [SPEAKER_00]: So once they're gone, they're gone. 05:37.241 --> 05:38.142 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm definitely not. 05:38.202 --> 05:41.585 [SPEAKER_00]: Unless the Lord tells me so I'm doing those again. 05:42.305 --> 05:44.366 [SPEAKER_00]: So go to blustenboss.com. 05:44.406 --> 05:48.047 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll put the link in the show notes to grab your product. 05:48.187 --> 05:50.148 [SPEAKER_00]: All the products are only $5. 05:50.908 --> 05:52.689 [SPEAKER_00]: Still under 10 after shipping. 05:53.129 --> 05:56.351 [SPEAKER_00]: Shout out to everybody who's taking advantage of the group offer. 05:56.711 --> 06:03.013 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I have an offer as well to where if you order over 10 of the products, your order is free and you only pay for shipping. 06:03.253 --> 06:04.234 [SPEAKER_00]: I definitely want to 06:09.916 --> 06:12.098 [SPEAKER_00]: be in community while using the products. 06:12.138 --> 06:18.004 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to make sure that I bless you and I want to get those in some group pants as well. 06:18.085 --> 06:18.965 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's automatic. 06:19.626 --> 06:25.112 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have more than 10 things in your cart when you go to purchase, it'll automatically apply the discount and then you just pay for shipping. 06:25.912 --> 06:49.589 [SPEAKER_00]: last update for those who have purchased within or since the last episode, those I'm going to prepare this weekend, like I said last weekend I moved and I wasn't able to pack up my house and my family plus the orders it was a bit more than I could handle last week, but I'm going to get all of those things. 06:50.109 --> 06:52.491 [SPEAKER_00]: prepared and out the door this weekend. 06:52.511 --> 06:58.895 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do it this weekend so but it'll be shipped probably by Monday, but over the weekend you should get a tracking number. 06:58.915 --> 07:02.878 [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, let's pick back up on this chapter on simplicity. 07:03.639 --> 07:11.565 [SPEAKER_00]: Last week we ended off on this study where these two experts came to the conclusion that 07:12.904 --> 07:22.068 [SPEAKER_00]: your emotional well-being doesn't change or isn't impacted by money after you reached this threshold of $75,000. 07:22.368 --> 07:29.152 [SPEAKER_00]: And this was years ago when they created it and we did the math, well, we actually ought to do math. 07:30.052 --> 07:34.654 [SPEAKER_00]: And we realized that that number in today's dollar amounts is around $108,000. 07:34.674 --> 07:41.958 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll tell y'all I disagree that you can put a dollar amount cap on happiness 07:42.891 --> 07:48.755 [SPEAKER_00]: And not to say that money buys happiness because I don't believe money in and of itself buys happiness. 07:49.195 --> 08:01.884 [SPEAKER_00]: However, money buys freedom in opportunities to create happiness, money take eliminates the need for work so you can spend your time doing more things that you enjoy in that God has called you to. 08:02.365 --> 08:05.507 [SPEAKER_00]: Money allows you to be able to pay for 08:06.087 --> 08:18.897 [SPEAKER_00]: certain opportunities for your family and for yourself, which will bring you joy, not the money, but the opportunities and the space and the freedom and time that money is able to create. 08:19.838 --> 08:23.320 [SPEAKER_00]: So me and the authorges are going to have to not agree on that. 08:23.360 --> 08:24.481 [SPEAKER_00]: That is totally okay. 08:25.822 --> 08:30.369 [SPEAKER_00]: The author then goes on to introduce Jesus teachings on money. 08:30.429 --> 08:37.781 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, so many of Jesus teachings, especially on money and stuff, were just telling stories about the way the world actually is. 08:38.502 --> 08:40.725 [SPEAKER_00]: It is more blessed to give than receive. 08:41.466 --> 08:45.109 [SPEAKER_00]: Notice, that's not a command, much less an arbitrary law. 08:45.549 --> 08:48.871 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a counterintuitive observation of the human condition. 08:49.451 --> 08:51.873 [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve both God and money. 08:52.573 --> 08:54.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Notice, again, not a command. 08:54.655 --> 08:57.437 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't say you shouldn't serve both God and money. 08:57.597 --> 08:58.657 [SPEAKER_00]: He said you can't. 08:59.358 --> 09:02.260 [SPEAKER_00]: Life does not consist of an abundance of possessions. 09:03.179 --> 09:06.961 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet again, he didn't command, don't buy more than three pair of shoes. 09:07.381 --> 09:10.183 [SPEAKER_00]: He just made a statement about the way life actually works. 09:10.783 --> 09:16.086 [SPEAKER_00]: The most important things in life are in your closet or your garage or your online portfolio. 09:16.567 --> 09:18.788 [SPEAKER_00]: That's just not where the abundance is found. 09:19.428 --> 09:20.569 [SPEAKER_00]: You see what he was doing? 09:20.969 --> 09:22.330 [SPEAKER_00]: He was teaching what's true. 09:22.930 --> 09:25.412 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether we believe him or not is another matter. 09:26.492 --> 09:33.739 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, now for a bit of a confession, I grew up reading a Bible all the way through every year, and around September, I will get to Jesus' teachings. 09:34.360 --> 09:38.624 [SPEAKER_00]: They say something like 25% of Jesus teaching their own money and stuff. 09:39.204 --> 09:40.986 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically none of them are positive. 09:41.527 --> 09:45.290 [SPEAKER_00]: Wherever prosperity gospel came from, it didn't come from Jesus. 09:45.811 --> 09:50.215 [SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, when I read his teachings on money, I cranged, they sounded horrible. 09:50.635 --> 09:52.597 [SPEAKER_00]: right up there with fasting and celibacy. 09:53.157 --> 09:57.581 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if I were to live those teachings, it will suck the joy right out of light. 09:58.802 --> 10:01.964 [SPEAKER_00]: Like many fellow Americans, I did not believe the gospel of the kingdom. 10:02.344 --> 10:10.311 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't yet trust that's what it means to believe that Jesus was a master teacher and a student observer of the human condition. 10:10.771 --> 10:14.434 [SPEAKER_00]: And that is teachings were not just right, but were the best way to live. 10:15.663 --> 10:23.568 [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't until I started to dabble in minimalism more on that a bit, and it immediately unleashed a flood of joy and peace in my body. 10:23.908 --> 10:27.110 [SPEAKER_00]: And I started to take Jesus' teaching on money seriously. 10:27.691 --> 10:31.093 [SPEAKER_00]: I can still remember the afternoon where it hit me like a freight train. 10:31.613 --> 10:32.493 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was right. 10:33.654 --> 10:36.096 [SPEAKER_00]: This is actually a better, freer way to live. 10:36.776 --> 10:40.418 [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, this was a shockingly virgin idea for me, full confession. 10:41.599 --> 11:01.249 [SPEAKER_00]: Last episode I talked about how I feel like his the author's analysis is incomplete because he's only correlating money to the accumulation of possessions or having money or the pursuit of well as only to the accumulation of possessions. 11:01.309 --> 11:03.971 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that's also causing him to 11:08.613 --> 11:15.615 [SPEAKER_00]: For example, he used a few of Jesus' teachings as more blessed to give than to receive. 11:15.675 --> 11:17.275 [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve all God in money. 11:17.735 --> 11:21.136 [SPEAKER_00]: Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. 11:21.976 --> 11:28.678 [SPEAKER_00]: He could have left the last one of course, life does not consist in an abundance of possessions, because that's more closer to his point. 11:29.238 --> 11:29.518 [SPEAKER_00]: But, 11:30.788 --> 11:42.920 [SPEAKER_00]: It is more blessed to give than receive, doesn't necessarily mean that we shouldn't pursue, well, that we shouldn't pursue growing financially. 11:43.040 --> 11:44.562 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what that means. 11:44.682 --> 11:47.625 [SPEAKER_00]: It simply means it is more blessed to give than receive. 11:48.105 --> 11:51.609 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know how you could give more by having more money. 11:53.127 --> 11:56.248 [SPEAKER_00]: He's saying you cannot serve both God and money, absolutely. 11:56.708 --> 12:04.050 [SPEAKER_00]: But in my opinion, serving God with more money allows you to do more for the kingdom. 12:04.370 --> 12:06.791 [SPEAKER_00]: It allows you to finance kingdom initiatives. 12:06.871 --> 12:09.111 [SPEAKER_00]: It allows you to give back more to the poor. 12:09.471 --> 12:15.333 [SPEAKER_00]: It allows you to free your time so that you can then spend more time with the Lord. 12:16.053 --> 12:29.069 [SPEAKER_00]: There's this concept that we hear in like career and financial circles often about making sure that you had FU money and because it's a Christian podcast, we're going to say F stands for forget and not be the 12:35.777 --> 12:52.641 [SPEAKER_00]: And essentially what that means is you should have a saving, especially if you work a not-to-five, you should have some money stored up a savings or something to where if that job gets too stressful, if life happens, you can just roll out. 12:52.761 --> 13:00.562 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be a slave to your position or your circumstance because you have this safety net, which means you have options. 13:03.782 --> 13:18.925 [SPEAKER_00]: one of the issues with having an abundance of money or this forget you money is that we can then become dependent on our own resources or we become self-sufficient versus depending on God and that is a problem. 13:19.585 --> 13:29.647 [SPEAKER_00]: So there's definitely that issue there and I want to acknowledge that however this is all the more reason that I feel like the author's discussion on money is 13:34.408 --> 13:44.534 [SPEAKER_00]: If we're going to have a conversation about money, it needs to be a thorough conversation about money because from what I'm reading here, he has the tone that money is bad. 13:44.614 --> 13:55.260 [SPEAKER_00]: He even goes on to say something like 25% of Jesus teachings and I'm quoting this from the book, are on money and stuff, basically none of them are positive. 13:56.596 --> 14:07.725 [SPEAKER_00]: That is a reach because the fine positive, he's jumping, he's jumping hard-a-led, flipping to some conclusions in this whole section here. 14:08.325 --> 14:11.688 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when I read the Bible and Jesus teachings about money, 14:12.128 --> 14:17.176 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't see it as negative that it is more blessed to give them receive. 14:17.556 --> 14:27.631 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that Jesus wants to be blessed financially so that we can give more, as I say, give to the poor, finance kingdom initiatives. 14:28.653 --> 14:41.604 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that it's positive the way that Jesus wants us to be sober-minded as it relates to money, how he tells us don't store it for yourselves, treasures on earth, restore it for yourselves, treasures in heaven. 14:41.884 --> 14:48.029 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to have an eternal perspective to keep our heart in our minds in the right place. 14:48.530 --> 14:49.551 [SPEAKER_00]: The reason why 14:50.171 --> 14:57.394 [SPEAKER_00]: the scripture talked about is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. 14:57.954 --> 15:05.758 [SPEAKER_00]: His point here was that wealth and having money creates this level of self-sufficiency that pulls us away from the Lord. 15:05.838 --> 15:08.819 [SPEAKER_00]: It creates ego, it creates, it can create pride. 15:10.262 --> 15:26.944 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is warning us of the dangers of our heart, not the dangers of money itself, but he is focusing on our heart and making sure that it is keeping the main thing the main thing and not getting to the point of being focused only on possessions. 15:27.905 --> 15:32.468 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is the part of the conversation that the author was missing. 15:33.028 --> 15:40.613 [SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like he should have went into a lot more detail because it's perpetuating this narrative that money is bad. 15:41.173 --> 15:48.358 [SPEAKER_00]: And that as long as you're middle class and you got enough to survive, having more than that isn't going to do anything for your happiness. 15:48.378 --> 15:50.039 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, come on, come on, 15:54.141 --> 15:58.162 [SPEAKER_00]: If we're going to talk about the subject, let's completely talk about it. 15:59.223 --> 16:14.787 [SPEAKER_00]: Because I even believe that if he would have been more thorough in his analysis in money generally and then pointed his discussion more so to the accumulation of possession, he would have better made his point about simplicity. 16:15.267 --> 16:30.671 [SPEAKER_00]: And let's be frank, a simple life isn't just eliminating the material things, but I believe that is also eliminating a lot of the mental load that we accumulate, a lot of things in our heart that we accumulate. 16:30.991 --> 16:33.711 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I could be a minimalist all I want to. 16:33.791 --> 16:37.652 [SPEAKER_00]: I could have five T-shirts and two pants and one pair of shoes. 16:38.112 --> 16:41.613 [SPEAKER_00]: And my closet is minimalistic because it's free of material things, 16:46.115 --> 16:52.441 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to discuss all of it, because hurry is not just what we physically do, hurry is a state of mind. 16:52.481 --> 16:58.566 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a condition of our heart that breathes anxiety and breathes us moving outside of the will of God. 16:58.646 --> 17:04.491 [SPEAKER_00]: So, sir, let's be more thorough, because in us being more thorough, we can be more impactful. 17:05.512 --> 17:08.955 [SPEAKER_00]: And it'll help drive the point home even more in my humble opinion. 17:10.391 --> 17:14.533 [SPEAKER_00]: In his next part, he seems to try to get there a little bit more when talking about money. 17:14.813 --> 17:15.854 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at what he says. 17:16.574 --> 17:25.159 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, for all the flat that pastors get for talking about money too much, a lot of which is well deserved, Jesus actually had a time to say on the subject. 17:25.760 --> 17:32.283 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a closer look at Matthew 6 in his most in-depth teaching on the subject and the so-called sermon on the mouth. 17:39.267 --> 17:55.553 [SPEAKER_00]: As far as Jesus said this, do not store it for yourselves treasures on earth where most environment destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store it for yourselves treasures in heaven where most environment do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. 17:55.573 --> 17:59.054 [SPEAKER_00]: So where your treasure is, there your heart will be awesome. 18:00.214 --> 18:01.935 [SPEAKER_00]: We just brought this up a few moments ago. 18:02.615 --> 18:14.603 [SPEAKER_00]: He says basically, don't invest all your time in energy and money and things that get old and rust and go out of style and can be snatched from the back of your car if you part too far from the streetland. 18:15.023 --> 18:24.329 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, put your life into things that matter, like your relationship with God and life in his kingdom, because where you put your resources is where you put your heart. 18:24.889 --> 18:27.551 [SPEAKER_00]: It is the steering wheel to your engine of desire. 18:28.551 --> 18:33.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Then he continues to quote the eye is the lamp of the body. 18:33.377 --> 18:36.000 [SPEAKER_00]: If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 18:36.380 --> 18:39.704 [SPEAKER_00]: But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. 18:40.424 --> 18:45.029 [SPEAKER_00]: If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 18:45.730 --> 18:48.452 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're thinking, wait, what is our tomatry up to do with money? 18:48.932 --> 18:52.295 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the first century idiom that's lost on our modern ears. 18:52.715 --> 18:56.978 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus' day, if people said you have a healthy eye, it had a double meaning. 18:57.398 --> 19:04.243 [SPEAKER_00]: It meant that one you were focused and living with a high degree of intentionality in life and two your generous to the poor. 19:04.864 --> 19:09.307 [SPEAKER_00]: When you looked at the world, you saw those in need and did your best to help out. 19:09.787 --> 19:16.113 [SPEAKER_00]: And unhealthy eye, whereas the King James varn version of puts it in evil eye, was the exact opposite. 19:16.593 --> 19:23.439 [SPEAKER_00]: When you looked out at the world, you were distracted by all that glitters and lost your focus on what really matters. 19:23.899 --> 19:26.241 [SPEAKER_00]: In turn, you close your fist to the poor. 19:27.122 --> 19:28.884 [SPEAKER_00]: then Jesus took it over the finish line. 19:29.285 --> 19:36.733 [SPEAKER_00]: No one can serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 19:37.214 --> 19:39.136 [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve both God and money. 19:39.697 --> 19:41.919 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, cannot, not should not. 19:42.660 --> 19:44.581 [SPEAKER_00]: For Jesus, it's a non-option. 19:44.741 --> 19:46.542 [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve God in the system. 19:46.963 --> 19:54.947 [SPEAKER_00]: You simply can't live the freedom way of Jesus and get stuck into the over-consumption that is normal in our society. 19:55.527 --> 19:57.248 [SPEAKER_00]: The two are mutually exclusive. 19:57.328 --> 19:58.169 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to pick. 19:58.809 --> 20:04.533 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're on the fence about it as I was for years, the next line from Jesus was the clencher for me. 20:05.333 --> 20:08.115 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. 20:08.815 --> 20:11.797 [SPEAKER_00]: Notice how Jesus connected money and stuff to worry. 20:12.177 --> 20:12.737 [SPEAKER_00]: You see that? 20:13.097 --> 20:15.118 [SPEAKER_00]: The word, therefore, is the key. 20:15.659 --> 20:21.142 [SPEAKER_00]: It ties together three short teachings on money and stuff to one long teaching on worry. 20:22.082 --> 20:25.406 [SPEAKER_00]: basic point, we worry about what we worship. 20:25.907 --> 20:28.430 [SPEAKER_00]: If you worship money, it will eat you alive. 20:28.750 --> 20:29.451 [SPEAKER_00]: Who wants that? 20:29.851 --> 20:30.872 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically nobody. 20:31.693 --> 20:36.499 [SPEAKER_00]: My critique still stands that his perspective is underdeveloped. 20:37.480 --> 20:53.803 [SPEAKER_00]: Case in point I have a house sort of the house that my husband and I first bought shortly after getting married we purchased it as like a starter home that was meant to be an investment property and so we bought something that was not expensive at all. 20:54.604 --> 20:58.449 [SPEAKER_00]: And we live there for maybe two years. 20:58.550 --> 21:00.913 [SPEAKER_00]: Once we had our first son, now's Garborough's Marvel Face. 21:01.093 --> 21:03.236 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, look, we need more space. 21:03.597 --> 21:05.039 [SPEAKER_00]: It's three of us now. 21:05.059 --> 21:06.381 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I had a nanny in the home. 21:06.401 --> 21:08.264 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, we're two on top of each other. 21:08.284 --> 21:08.704 [SPEAKER_00]: We gotta go. 21:09.466 --> 21:16.655 [SPEAKER_00]: But we purchased that house as an investment and so we moved out and we rented it out. 21:17.056 --> 21:25.067 [SPEAKER_00]: And so the house has been rented out since like 2021, so like the past five years and it's our residential investment property. 21:26.288 --> 21:31.090 [SPEAKER_00]: We have a tenant right now who's been there for the last couple of years, maybe like four. 21:31.150 --> 21:33.011 [SPEAKER_00]: She's been there most of the time. 21:33.031 --> 21:39.034 [SPEAKER_00]: We have one other tenant that was a disaster, but she's been there pretty much since the disaster tenant moved out. 21:40.195 --> 21:43.376 [SPEAKER_00]: And she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. 21:44.377 --> 21:49.919 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we were devastated to hear that and want to see God heal her body. 21:50.560 --> 21:55.062 [SPEAKER_00]: The reality is that when you go through health challenges like that, 21:56.122 --> 22:04.570 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a financial hit as well and she can't work because she's going through treatment and then the side effects of the treatment. 22:04.690 --> 22:06.692 [SPEAKER_00]: She also has a son. 22:07.232 --> 22:17.981 [SPEAKER_00]: She used to have someone who lived in a home with her but they passed away recently and she's just gone through some tragedies and it's a very tough financial 22:22.672 --> 22:29.857 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of time the rent is late or is not the full of mount and it impacts her ability to pay us essentially. 22:30.637 --> 22:46.007 [SPEAKER_00]: So here we are the landlords who have a mortgage and we have a tenant who has very reasonable circumstances that we completely understand and we are completely sympathetic to. 22:47.087 --> 22:52.272 [SPEAKER_00]: However, we still have a mortgage, and the mortgage people ain't sympathetic to nothing, the bank wants their money. 22:52.292 --> 22:53.212 [SPEAKER_00]: On one side. 22:54.033 --> 22:54.854 [SPEAKER_00]: So what do we do? 22:56.776 --> 23:02.400 [SPEAKER_00]: We're Christians, so we trust God, and we choose generosity, we choose love. 23:02.681 --> 23:04.883 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not pushovers by any means. 23:05.823 --> 23:08.846 [SPEAKER_00]: However, what would Jesus do in this instance? 23:09.767 --> 23:10.928 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus will give our grace. 23:12.130 --> 23:14.593 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we accept late payments. 23:14.773 --> 23:16.515 [SPEAKER_00]: We accept incomplete payments. 23:16.635 --> 23:21.360 [SPEAKER_00]: There are times where my husband is told her pages don't worry about even paying the rest of this month at all. 23:21.760 --> 23:26.145 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just focus on next month and we'll take it month by month. 23:26.185 --> 23:28.368 [SPEAKER_00]: But you focus on recovering. 23:28.388 --> 23:30.710 [SPEAKER_00]: You focus on taking care of your son. 23:31.931 --> 23:38.974 [SPEAKER_00]: And she's, of course, it's extremely grateful for our generosity, but you know what makes room for us to be that generous. 23:39.354 --> 23:41.155 [SPEAKER_00]: Us having money to pay the mortgage ourselves. 23:41.855 --> 23:47.137 [SPEAKER_00]: Us not relying on her rent in order to pay the mortgage. 23:47.757 --> 23:56.161 [SPEAKER_00]: So our ability to have that financial room allows us to be a better Christian or better Christians for her. 23:57.574 --> 24:19.120 [SPEAKER_00]: And so situations like this is the reason why I can't get my foot off of a pastor commerce and that because less not act like money is bad and it's only to get more stuff and it's only to fuel this Western society's overconsumption habits. 24:20.822 --> 24:26.445 [SPEAKER_00]: The materialism, capitalism, overconsumption, very real issues. 24:27.265 --> 24:34.469 [SPEAKER_00]: But this is why I say, his point is underdeveloped, because let's have a full conversation of the middle. 24:35.069 --> 24:40.452 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just like, okay, cap that middle class because anything else is overconsumption. 24:40.672 --> 24:42.753 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's a middle. 24:43.795 --> 24:46.498 [SPEAKER_00]: outside of just middle class, no pun intended. 24:47.058 --> 24:51.082 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a nuance that is being neglected here. 24:52.023 --> 24:58.969 [SPEAKER_00]: We read Jesus' sermon on the Mel, and we hear how he tells us we should handle money and we hear what he's saying about 24:59.449 --> 25:00.469 [SPEAKER_00]: the lamp of our eyes. 25:00.510 --> 25:07.032 [SPEAKER_00]: We hear what he's saying about storing up treasures and have it, but that doesn't mean we do not pursue wealth on earth. 25:07.152 --> 25:09.433 [SPEAKER_00]: It means that wealth doesn't become our God. 25:09.493 --> 25:14.395 [SPEAKER_00]: We still pursue him above all, and allow him to one define wealth. 25:15.362 --> 25:18.984 [SPEAKER_00]: because wealth can very easily be defined about the world standards. 25:19.145 --> 25:22.327 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to let Jesus defile what wealth actually means. 25:22.647 --> 25:28.771 [SPEAKER_00]: It may mean millions, it may mean middle class, but then other areas of wealth. 25:28.831 --> 25:31.933 [SPEAKER_00]: It may mean an abundance of community and resources. 25:32.013 --> 25:35.315 [SPEAKER_00]: It may mean insert any other definition here. 25:35.335 --> 25:38.317 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't necessarily always mean just dollars and cents. 25:38.598 --> 25:41.380 [SPEAKER_00]: However, we let Jesus defile wealth. 25:45.162 --> 25:45.802 [SPEAKER_00]: etc. 25:45.862 --> 25:50.724 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to be labor to point once again underdeveloped. 25:51.224 --> 25:52.104 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's continue. 25:52.704 --> 25:56.505 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I'll agree a little bit more as we get through the rest of the chapter. 25:57.606 --> 26:08.849 [SPEAKER_00]: The author says, is there a practice on the life and teachings of Jesus to break free from the soul draining habits of Western materialism and live into the reality of how life actually works? 26:09.489 --> 26:10.650 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a leading question. 26:10.930 --> 26:11.731 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, there is. 26:12.191 --> 26:14.073 [SPEAKER_00]: This practice is called simplicity. 26:14.533 --> 26:16.134 [SPEAKER_00]: But it goes by a few other names. 26:16.615 --> 26:17.315 [SPEAKER_00]: Simple living. 26:17.816 --> 26:19.337 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a bit cleaner, which is nice. 26:19.998 --> 26:20.718 [SPEAKER_00]: Through Galilee. 26:21.178 --> 26:22.580 [SPEAKER_00]: This is what the monks called it. 26:22.960 --> 26:25.762 [SPEAKER_00]: But that word has lost all positive connotations. 26:25.822 --> 26:26.643 [SPEAKER_00]: So I avoid it. 26:27.263 --> 26:28.004 [SPEAKER_00]: Minimalism. 26:28.524 --> 26:37.892 [SPEAKER_00]: More recently, this is what a number of bloggers and writers have been calling a secularized version of the ancient practice updated for the wealthy Western world. 26:38.192 --> 26:38.633 [SPEAKER_00]: I like it. 26:39.233 --> 26:45.377 [SPEAKER_00]: for this chapter I'll use simplicity and minimalism interchangeably to get started what exactly is it? 26:46.277 --> 26:48.198 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's start with what exactly is not. 26:48.759 --> 26:52.121 [SPEAKER_00]: First is not a style of architecture or design. 26:52.561 --> 27:03.708 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people hear the word minimalism and think of a modern home with an angular design, high-end furniture, black and white pallet, magazine-esque neatness, and of course no caves. 27:05.238 --> 27:09.459 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be into modern design to be a minimalist. 27:09.599 --> 27:11.300 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever your style is, that's great. 27:12.020 --> 27:13.621 [SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, it isn't poverty. 27:14.101 --> 27:20.363 [SPEAKER_00]: It isn't a bare home in empty closet, a joyless life with freedom to enjoy material things. 27:20.763 --> 27:24.044 [SPEAKER_00]: The whole goal is exactly the opposite, more freedom. 27:24.825 --> 27:31.527 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, a lot of people here are minimalism and think of Steve Jobs' house and empty room with nothing but a chair and a lamp in it. 27:32.602 --> 27:36.408 [SPEAKER_00]: Minimalism isn't about living with nothing, it's about living with less. 27:37.089 --> 27:42.598 [SPEAKER_00]: Thirdly, minimalism isn't about organizing your stuff, cleaning out the garage every spring. 27:43.679 --> 27:50.984 [SPEAKER_00]: cleaning out your closet for the ninth time, making a run to target to about 20 plastic bins in a label gun. 27:52.044 --> 27:58.289 [SPEAKER_00]: God bless Marie Condo, her work is great, but I will argue that organizing is antithetical to minimalism. 27:58.869 --> 28:08.015 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have so much stuff that you have to organize it, box it up, label it, and pack it in a way that cuts down on space, then the odds are you have too much stuff. 28:09.004 --> 28:09.865 [SPEAKER_00]: May, arguable. 28:11.186 --> 28:16.069 [SPEAKER_00]: What if you had what you needed, only what you needed, and there wasn't anything to organize. 28:16.910 --> 28:19.171 [SPEAKER_00]: There's an idea worth chasing down. 28:20.132 --> 28:24.615 [SPEAKER_00]: Well then, what is minimalism, or simplicity, whichever label you prefer. 28:25.116 --> 28:27.678 [SPEAKER_00]: Here are a few definitions I find helpful. 28:28.778 --> 28:35.142 [SPEAKER_00]: The intentional promotion of the things we value most and the removal of everything that distracts us from them. 28:36.343 --> 28:47.710 [SPEAKER_00]: Simplicity is an inward reality that can be seen in an outward lifestyle of choosing to leverage time, money, talent, and possessions toward what matter most. 28:49.262 --> 28:52.345 [SPEAKER_00]: Notice that minimalism isn't just about your money and stuff. 28:52.845 --> 29:03.354 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about your whole life as the road joyfully said after going off into the woods for a multi-year experiment and simple living, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. 29:04.115 --> 29:09.279 [SPEAKER_00]: I say let your affairs be as two or three, not as a hundred or a thousand. 29:09.719 --> 29:12.462 [SPEAKER_00]: Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? 29:13.805 --> 29:19.889 [SPEAKER_00]: He goes on to say, the goal isn't just to declutter your closet or garage, but to declutter your life. 29:20.309 --> 29:31.177 [SPEAKER_00]: To clear away the myriad of distractions that ratchet up your anxiety, feed us an endless stream of mind numbing dribble and anesthetize us to what really matters. 29:31.877 --> 29:35.259 [SPEAKER_00]: To keep the definitions coming, here are a few one liners for clutter. 29:35.960 --> 29:40.323 [SPEAKER_00]: Anything that does not add value to my life, anything that does not spark joy, 29:41.551 --> 29:50.777 [SPEAKER_00]: too much stuff and too small of space, anything that we no longer used or love and anything not led to a feeling of disorganization. 29:51.977 --> 30:02.924 [SPEAKER_00]: The goal here is to live with a high degree of intentionality, around what matters most, which to those of us who apprentice under Jesus is Jesus' self and his kingdom. 30:04.185 --> 30:07.767 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're a bit cynical or you're currently thinking, isn't this just for rich people? 30:08.315 --> 30:11.396 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes, poor people don't call it simple living. 30:11.756 --> 30:12.956 [SPEAKER_00]: They just call it living. 30:13.316 --> 30:15.096 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't re-books on minimalism. 30:15.196 --> 30:16.417 [SPEAKER_00]: They pray for justice. 30:16.997 --> 30:20.777 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you're reading this book, the odds are very high that you're not poor. 30:21.357 --> 30:29.979 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, and zero guilt trip to put things in perspective, if you make 25,000 a year or more, you're in a top 10% of the world's wealth. 30:30.939 --> 30:33.140 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you make $34,000 a year or more, you're in a top 1%. 30:36.642 --> 30:39.604 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, listen to Paul's command to the rich any feces. 30:40.285 --> 30:46.389 [SPEAKER_00]: Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. 30:46.930 --> 30:52.334 [SPEAKER_00]: Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous in willing to share. 30:52.974 --> 30:57.818 [SPEAKER_00]: In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. 30:58.638 --> 31:01.719 [SPEAKER_00]: so they may take hold of life that is truly life. 31:02.379 --> 31:05.700 [SPEAKER_00]: This was Paul riffing on Jesus teaching from Matthew 6. 31:06.080 --> 31:09.401 [SPEAKER_00]: See the quote in there and he was saying the same thing Jesus did. 31:09.821 --> 31:14.903 [SPEAKER_00]: Simplicity is actually the way we reach out and grasp life that is truly life. 31:15.872 --> 31:19.173 [SPEAKER_00]: But if I weren't rich, which turns out I am, I'm not off the hook. 31:19.693 --> 31:22.253 [SPEAKER_00]: Most of Jesus' teachings on many weren't to rich people. 31:22.674 --> 31:25.214 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the majority of his audience was likely poor. 31:25.774 --> 31:26.654 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about Jesus. 31:27.055 --> 31:30.055 [SPEAKER_00]: Simplicity is a practice that is entirely based on his life. 31:30.695 --> 31:33.396 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus wasn't nearly as poor as many people claimed. 31:33.876 --> 31:38.137 [SPEAKER_00]: Before he became a rabbi, he was a tradesman, likely making a living wage. 31:39.176 --> 31:47.985 [SPEAKER_00]: Once he started teaching full-time, he was supported by a group of wealthy donors, mostly upper-class women who pay for his food and travel expenses. 31:48.686 --> 31:53.711 [SPEAKER_00]: He even needed one of his disciples to manage the budget, of course, that in turn out well. 31:54.091 --> 31:56.313 [SPEAKER_00]: He was friends with both rich and the poor. 31:57.333 --> 32:07.967 [SPEAKER_00]: but there are lots of stories about him eating and drinking at the home of one of his rich friends, so much so that the gospel writers admit he was accused of being a glutton in a drunkard. 32:08.748 --> 32:14.214 [SPEAKER_00]: Even at the cross, the ramen soldiers cast lots for his garments, meaning they were worth something. 32:14.755 --> 32:19.698 [SPEAKER_00]: John even wrote, this undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 32:20.359 --> 32:26.423 [SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus' life, in teachings, we see the very same tension that runs all the way through the library of Scripture. 32:27.043 --> 32:33.328 [SPEAKER_00]: On one hand, the world and everything in it are very good and meant to be enjoyed and shared with those in need. 32:33.968 --> 32:36.510 [SPEAKER_00]: on the other hand, too much wealth is dangerous. 32:36.951 --> 32:39.633 [SPEAKER_00]: It has the potential to turn our hearts away from God. 32:40.293 --> 32:56.046 [SPEAKER_00]: When that happens, our greedy, off-kiltered hearts wreak havoc, not only on our own lives, sabotaging our happiness, but more importantly to others, but more importantly on others, widening the gap between rich and poor and doing damage to the earth itself. 32:57.067 --> 33:05.320 [SPEAKER_00]: We see Jesus happily living in that tension, enjoying a good meal in a friend's home one minute, and warning about what money can do to your heart the next. 33:06.021 --> 33:11.349 [SPEAKER_00]: To be fair in that tension, Jesus clearly cited with minimalism over materialism. 33:11.690 --> 33:12.270 [SPEAKER_00]: No question. 33:13.071 --> 33:19.496 [SPEAKER_00]: As Richard Foster noted, a carefree, unconcerned for possessions is what marks the life in the kingdom. 33:20.117 --> 33:25.061 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus put on display this carefree, unconcerned so incredibly well. 33:25.721 --> 33:37.010 [SPEAKER_00]: To follow Jesus, especially in the Western world, is to live in that same tension between grateful, happy enjoyment of a nice, beautiful things and simplicity. 33:37.431 --> 33:41.634 [SPEAKER_00]: And when in doubt, heir on the side of generous, simple living. 33:43.387 --> 33:59.566 [SPEAKER_00]: So this is why, so he attempts to do here what I've been critiquing him for not doing previously, which is acknowledging this tension, acknowledging that it was wealthy upper-class people who helped fund Jesus ministry, acknowledging that 34:00.463 --> 34:06.767 [SPEAKER_00]: wealth isn't inherently bad, but it is what an abundance of wealth could potentially do to our hearts. 34:06.807 --> 34:07.707 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the issue. 34:08.308 --> 34:17.133 [SPEAKER_00]: And so obviously he agrees with me that this tension and nuance exists, but he's not spending enough time there for me. 34:18.073 --> 34:21.735 [SPEAKER_00]: The scriptures itself illuminate a broader discussion 34:23.983 --> 34:26.346 [SPEAKER_00]: more detail that needs to be discussed. 34:26.426 --> 34:43.066 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is, I'm not saying he's doing this, but something that I particularly look out for when it comes to listening to other people and faith-based settings, reading faith-based books, I pay particular attention to the hierarchy that people place. 34:43.706 --> 34:45.988 [SPEAKER_00]: Scripture in their own opinions. 34:46.348 --> 35:11.729 [SPEAKER_00]: And I purposely am mindful of this when it comes to my own things that I may write or discuss, where if you hear somebody who makes a point and then use this Scripture to validate their point, that is somebody who is trying to spiritually manipulate you into a green with them and somebody who is centering themselves in a place to where Jesus 35:13.210 --> 35:19.935 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying that this is what this author is doing because he always brings it back to we are apprentices of Jesus. 35:20.095 --> 35:29.842 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not saying that he's doing this at all, but this made me think about this and I think that it's worth noting because I think it also speaks to the lens in which I read all of these books. 35:30.183 --> 35:35.427 [SPEAKER_00]: So where I'm listening but I also am attentive and sober enough to 35:39.118 --> 35:43.562 [SPEAKER_00]: If this hierarchy is misaligned at any point, I'm disengaging. 35:43.983 --> 35:51.329 [SPEAKER_00]: But nevertheless, somebody's perspective or whatever it is that they're teaching you should 35:58.190 --> 36:04.174 [SPEAKER_00]: And then they're teaching you how to shape wherever your opinion may stand to fit the gospel. 36:04.954 --> 36:11.738 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think here he slips into this a little bit because as I was saying previously where I feel like his point is underdeveloped. 36:12.888 --> 36:19.916 [SPEAKER_00]: The scripture that he chose to refer to here, fully acknowledges every element of the nuance that I said that he wasn't acknowledging. 36:20.336 --> 36:33.691 [SPEAKER_00]: And so he has it in here, so it's present, but his illumination of the text or his commentary where he's bringing in all of these perspectives and quotes from other people and all of that are not focused on emphasizing 36:34.332 --> 36:40.357 [SPEAKER_00]: all of what the scripture says is just focusing on emphasizing all of the point that he's trying to prove. 36:40.717 --> 36:51.765 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that is an area of improvement here because as I was reading this and it's been a few weeks since I've read this whole chapter so it's kind of like new as I'm going through some of the highlights that I had. 36:51.985 --> 37:16.271 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, bro, everything that I've been critiquing you for is right here in this text, where it's clear that these new bosses of how wealth funds the kingdom and how because Jesus had access to money, whether it was his own or others providing it to him, allow for his ministry to go smoothly because he wasn't worrying about his basic needs. 37:16.311 --> 37:18.431 [SPEAKER_00]: His job allowed him to have 37:22.312 --> 37:23.773 [SPEAKER_00]: donors and community. 37:24.954 --> 37:44.346 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, essentially what I was discussing, but we're focusing so much on possessions and Western world and quotes from all these people on minimalism in all of that to prove this ultimate point that there is so much more that the scripture is illuminating that we're negating to focus on that point. 37:45.276 --> 37:58.162 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope that makes sense because that is something I pay very particular attention to and I believe that you should as well whenever you're consuming Christian content, books, preachers, etc. 37:59.163 --> 38:10.288 [SPEAKER_00]: Are you making your life in a pinguint fit scripture or are you finding scriptures to support your life your pinguint in your way? 38:10.868 --> 38:26.740 [SPEAKER_00]: That's something I want you all to just take as you continue to operate in the online space and consume content about books, et cetera, to grow and your fake pay attention to that particular pattern because that will reveal a lot. 38:27.260 --> 38:50.712 [SPEAKER_00]: about the core in which any person who is claiming to be of God is operating from at any given time because somebody may be in one instance fully submitting it all to the Lord and Jesus and Scriptures are driving and then in the same message or the same book or in the same week or month that changes. 38:51.906 --> 39:08.654 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why dependence is a moment by moment decision because we can slip in and out of it, even within the same conversation, but I just wanted to highlight that to where you keep that top of mind as you are engaging in Christian spaces. 39:08.714 --> 39:13.637 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that I hope you tremendously as it relates to discernment generally. 39:14.821 --> 39:23.923 [SPEAKER_00]: But to the authors credit, a lot of what he's saying, but he's getting ready to say about minimalism is valid because we do buy too much stuff. 39:23.943 --> 39:33.885 [SPEAKER_00]: And there are so many, we are aware of so much more stuff because of marketing and advertising in online ads and all of that. 39:34.325 --> 39:41.087 [SPEAKER_00]: We're aware of so much more than we would be aware of have had technology not been where it is. 39:42.027 --> 39:54.212 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember when I was growing up, I watched Nickelodeon and like Disney Channel and stuff and commercials, I would like take notes on what I wanted for Christmas or whatever based on commercials. 39:54.672 --> 40:02.895 [SPEAKER_00]: But with after those commercials, I would know what was for sale wasn't inundated with new things to buy that I didn't know I wanted or needed at any given time. 40:03.675 --> 40:06.316 [SPEAKER_00]: They used to send an Amazon started doing this recently. 40:06.876 --> 40:10.938 [SPEAKER_00]: They used to send little magazines and a mail from toys I was. 40:11.598 --> 40:17.041 [SPEAKER_00]: And I would just go through it and circle the things that I wanted and told my parents about it. 40:17.301 --> 40:24.584 [SPEAKER_00]: But if it wasn't for like direct mail and some TV ads, I don't even know about half of things to buy. 40:25.404 --> 40:27.345 [SPEAKER_00]: And that was pretty advanced for that age. 40:27.865 --> 40:30.046 [SPEAKER_00]: Now please, soon as you open your phone, 40:30.998 --> 40:36.121 [SPEAKER_00]: any and then at the digital cookies on your phone and all of that so they know that you was looking for a couch. 40:36.381 --> 40:50.350 [SPEAKER_00]: The phone's listening to you so they know you was talking about something to wear this weekend and then you get on seeing in and it's a fashion overhead and then you go to Instagram and you see some more fashion overheads as your consuming content. 40:50.691 --> 40:50.931 [SPEAKER_00]: Then you 40:54.813 --> 41:03.960 [SPEAKER_00]: of something that looks like whatever you was about to buy, all fashion Nova, like those retargeted ads are very effective in getting people to purchase. 41:04.481 --> 41:11.126 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that there's merit to this conversation of overconsumption, especially in this digital age. 41:11.666 --> 41:19.513 [SPEAKER_00]: So he gives some tips on what you can do to get started to be more of a minimalist. 41:20.693 --> 41:24.956 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, first, well, hit on some principles, then the practice itself. 41:25.757 --> 41:27.698 [SPEAKER_00]: No, these are principles, not rules. 41:27.898 --> 41:31.160 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a more about freedom, not more rules. 41:31.721 --> 41:32.982 [SPEAKER_00]: Here are my top 12. 41:33.742 --> 41:38.525 [SPEAKER_00]: One, before you buy something, ask yourself, what is the true cost of this item? 41:39.466 --> 41:47.452 [SPEAKER_00]: Back to the motorcycle example, think about what it will cost to clean, repair, maintain, excuse me, and show or finance this item. 41:48.053 --> 41:49.594 [SPEAKER_00]: It's more than just a ticket price. 41:49.934 --> 41:51.135 [SPEAKER_00]: Can you actually afford it? 41:51.695 --> 41:53.797 [SPEAKER_00]: How much time will it cost me to own this? 41:54.197 --> 41:55.418 [SPEAKER_00]: How often will I use it? 41:56.479 --> 41:58.101 [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, measure hurry. 41:58.662 --> 42:00.724 [SPEAKER_00]: What will this do to the pace of my life? 42:00.844 --> 42:03.107 [SPEAKER_00]: Will it speed it up or slow it down? 42:04.308 --> 42:11.356 [SPEAKER_00]: Second, before you buy, ask yourself, by buying this, am I oppressing the poor or harming the earth? 42:11.917 --> 42:13.338 [SPEAKER_00]: So do a really good question so far. 42:14.239 --> 42:24.152 [SPEAKER_00]: He makes a sustainability argument by saying, think of something as common as polyester which is now in a startling 50% of our clothes and is non-biodegradable. 42:24.653 --> 42:29.819 [SPEAKER_00]: That cute athletic wear outfit it will always exist in a landfill forever. 42:30.660 --> 42:39.106 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of us care deeply about environmental issues, others not so much fine, but the earth isn't the only victim of our overconsumption. 42:39.786 --> 42:45.610 [SPEAKER_00]: A few years ago, I was shocked and deeply disturbed when I learned about the dark underbelly of globalization. 42:46.150 --> 42:54.756 [SPEAKER_00]: I had no clue that a huge chunk of the items in my home and life were made unjustly, if not, with full on human trafficking and child labor. 42:55.436 --> 42:59.679 [SPEAKER_00]: take the garment industry, for example, which is radically changed since the man men era. 43:00.219 --> 43:04.061 [SPEAKER_00]: In the 1960s, 95% of our clothes were made in America. 43:04.562 --> 43:09.725 [SPEAKER_00]: In America, spent on average 10% of their annual budget on clothing in own very few items. 43:10.365 --> 43:19.891 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, only 2% of our clothing is made in the US, and we spend only around 4% of our annual budget on it, a decrease of 500%. 43:20.512 --> 43:22.313 [SPEAKER_00]: How did our clothes get so cheap? 43:22.833 --> 43:34.737 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, multinational corporations started making our clothes and places like Vietnam and Bangladesh where government corruption is right and officials do little or nothing to stop the victimization of workers. 43:35.317 --> 43:39.078 [SPEAKER_00]: Things like minimum wage, healthcare and unions are alien. 43:39.598 --> 43:47.821 [SPEAKER_00]: Workers are likely to work six to seven days a week in a sweltering factoring, often in unsafe conditions with little or no protection. 43:49.466 --> 43:53.929 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about that next time you put that 2p set in the cart on the TikTok show. 43:55.190 --> 44:01.635 [SPEAKER_00]: Number four, when you do buy up for a few better things, up for fewer better things. 44:02.296 --> 44:13.705 [SPEAKER_00]: Often in attempt to save money, we end up buying a lot of cheaply and awfully unjustly made items instead of living without for a while and then buying a quality item that will last. 44:14.305 --> 44:16.327 [SPEAKER_00]: buy it once is a great model to live by. 44:16.708 --> 44:19.931 [SPEAKER_00]: If you can't afford the high end version, consider used. 44:20.472 --> 44:22.313 [SPEAKER_00]: Either way, in the end, you'll save money. 44:22.674 --> 44:29.201 [SPEAKER_00]: And if Jesus was right in all our money, it's actually God's money, and we're just his money managers, then that's a good route. 44:30.383 --> 44:32.804 [SPEAKER_00]: Number five, when you can, share. 44:33.404 --> 44:36.986 [SPEAKER_00]: The sharing economy has its downsides, but it's great for simple living. 44:37.606 --> 44:43.769 [SPEAKER_00]: Apps like lift and car sharing services like car to go, make it easy to get around cities without owning a car. 44:44.330 --> 44:53.074 [SPEAKER_00]: Vacation rental sites like VRBO make it easy to enjoy the beach without owning a beach house, not to mention life and community. 44:53.554 --> 44:55.615 [SPEAKER_00]: I share all sorts of things with my community. 44:56.396 --> 45:00.782 [SPEAKER_00]: As one early church father said, we hold everything in common except our lives. 45:01.943 --> 45:05.227 [SPEAKER_00]: I totally agree with the community aspect. 45:05.568 --> 45:08.952 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to get back to that as people, and especially as Christians. 45:09.613 --> 45:13.378 [SPEAKER_00]: Number six, get into the habit of giving things away. 45:14.159 --> 45:16.401 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember Jesus on the subject of reality. 45:16.901 --> 45:19.123 [SPEAKER_00]: It is more blessed to give than to receive. 45:19.643 --> 45:28.169 [SPEAKER_00]: It feels good to put on a new t-shirt for sure, but it's incredibly life-giving to help a child climb out of poverty or just help out a friend in a tough stretch. 45:28.809 --> 45:32.592 [SPEAKER_00]: Want a more blessed life give generously and regularly. 45:34.077 --> 45:49.047 [SPEAKER_00]: One of my husband's friends is, well, they just had a baby and I went through their registry and it was so funny because it's like new moms, we all be buying the same stuff and because all the same stuff are being promoted to you. 45:49.727 --> 45:54.891 [SPEAKER_00]: I had probably everything that was on her registry and then my daughter. 45:56.142 --> 46:07.267 [SPEAKER_00]: I had so many clothes because my sister had a baby girl six weeks before me so my niece and my daughter are very close and age and so my sister was like giving me all of her old clothes. 46:07.427 --> 46:19.773 [SPEAKER_00]: One of my good friends he had a daughter within I was a few months before I got pregnant and so he gave me all of her clothes so I had so many baby clothes that I did it by. 46:20.513 --> 46:21.153 [SPEAKER_00]: any clothes. 46:21.313 --> 46:25.795 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I have yet to buy anything but like one outfit that I thought was cute for my daughter. 46:26.635 --> 46:32.518 [SPEAKER_00]: And that was a huge financial relief for me for people to just be able to give me things. 46:33.158 --> 46:38.280 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I paid it back by packing up all of the clothes that she couldn't fit. 46:38.960 --> 46:46.963 [SPEAKER_00]: all the things that I had that was on my husband's friend's registry and I packed it up in his really huge box and gave it to them. 46:47.824 --> 46:55.247 [SPEAKER_00]: And then another family friend, she's getting ready to have a baby and she's actually in a bind financially right now. 46:55.847 --> 47:03.570 [SPEAKER_00]: I had a bassinet and I didn't give this to my husband's friend, but I gave them more so close, but this other family friend, I had a bassinet. 47:04.500 --> 47:06.300 [SPEAKER_00]: I had like a little lounge chair. 47:06.641 --> 47:09.321 [SPEAKER_00]: I had even more clothes because it had been like a couple months. 47:09.621 --> 47:11.562 [SPEAKER_00]: And my daughter was growing out of even more clothes. 47:12.142 --> 47:16.443 [SPEAKER_00]: I had packing plays, so much stuff. 47:16.603 --> 47:18.443 [SPEAKER_00]: All types of breastfeeding supplies. 47:18.523 --> 47:22.904 [SPEAKER_00]: I had like at least a thousand breast milk storage bags because they give it to you. 47:23.024 --> 47:24.745 [SPEAKER_00]: They send them to you with your insurance. 47:25.845 --> 47:26.845 [SPEAKER_00]: I was adjusted enough. 47:27.286 --> 47:30.366 [SPEAKER_00]: I pumped enough to feed her and that's it. 47:30.466 --> 47:34.308 [SPEAKER_00]: So I didn't have need for all of these like breast milk storage bags. 47:35.028 --> 47:41.210 [SPEAKER_00]: So I gave her so much stuff and it felt so good to be a blessing and to be able to 47:42.614 --> 47:49.221 [SPEAKER_00]: be in community and not just me as the giver, but me receiving things as well like being in community. 47:49.341 --> 47:56.908 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have to buy any clothes for my daughter because the people in my community had baby girls who grew out of the clothes and they gave in to me and then I paid it forward. 47:57.569 --> 47:59.971 [SPEAKER_00]: My son is getting ready to go to a new school. 48:00.612 --> 48:16.269 [SPEAKER_00]: and they wore uniform at his current school and they have like any school that's like used uniform shop to wear people, parents would like donate their old uniforms and then you will go and pay I think a shirt is like maybe five bucks. 48:17.249 --> 48:20.270 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, they have different, you know, fossil boys and girls. 48:20.330 --> 48:23.111 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the girls dresses I want to say is maybe like 10 bucks. 48:23.152 --> 48:28.133 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's very cheap compared to what you will pay for at the uniform store. 48:28.153 --> 48:31.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Because their stuff has to be like embroidered with the school's name. 48:32.055 --> 48:33.436 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's very particular. 48:33.496 --> 48:38.057 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't just go to Target and get a bunch of white polos and khaki pants. 48:38.077 --> 48:41.879 [SPEAKER_00]: Like they had to have the embroidered school name on it. 48:42.499 --> 48:49.782 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's a blessing to be able to go to the school's youth uniform shop and spend maybe 50 bucks. 48:49.962 --> 48:59.726 [SPEAKER_00]: And my kids have uniforms for at least the next few months versus spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars that people typically spend when it's back to school season. 49:00.106 --> 49:06.309 [SPEAKER_00]: And so then pay that back by donating his old uniforms back to the school that he's no longer going to need. 49:06.389 --> 49:08.270 [SPEAKER_00]: So living in community and 49:09.570 --> 49:21.072 [SPEAKER_00]: It's so important and that is a part of being a Christ like so I'm glad that so I'm agreeing with a lot of what he's emphasizing and encouraging that we all do the same. 49:22.186 --> 49:24.447 [SPEAKER_00]: Number seven is live by budget. 49:25.327 --> 49:27.007 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that self-explanatory, right? 49:27.748 --> 49:36.950 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's today's age where everybody is showing a highlight real on Instagram, where that a koreasha song spin that is going crazy online. 49:37.791 --> 49:39.911 [SPEAKER_00]: Matt, I have so's like a hair and that song. 49:41.492 --> 49:46.853 [SPEAKER_00]: It is promoted to be frivolous spinners. 49:47.093 --> 49:49.714 [SPEAKER_00]: But we should live by a budget. 49:50.797 --> 49:53.638 [SPEAKER_00]: And your budget shouldn't include enjoyment. 49:54.078 --> 49:57.500 [SPEAKER_00]: Should you have the excess money for that? 49:58.100 --> 49:59.340 [SPEAKER_00]: Enjoyment should be there. 50:00.281 --> 50:05.763 [SPEAKER_00]: But a budget should be something that we have and we live by so that we can make sure that we're good stewards. 50:06.523 --> 50:10.165 [SPEAKER_00]: Number eight, learn to enjoy things without owning them. 50:10.765 --> 50:14.647 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, one quirk of our culture is we think we need to own something to enjoy it. 50:14.827 --> 50:15.207 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't. 50:15.647 --> 50:21.990 [SPEAKER_00]: I deeply enjoy the park down the street from my house and our local library and the books I get from it. 50:22.530 --> 50:29.693 [SPEAKER_00]: He talks about a local coffee shop that he gets to go to downtown with beautiful design and he just pays for his coffee. 50:29.773 --> 50:33.615 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I don't own any of these things but I enjoy them and so can you. 50:34.863 --> 50:48.866 [SPEAKER_00]: I love the water and I have like my spot that I go to is in Virginia and I go here whenever I need to think whenever I am dealing with a lot emotionally and it's just a bench that's right next to the water. 50:49.346 --> 50:50.566 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of dipped off. 50:50.806 --> 50:59.868 [SPEAKER_00]: It's right next to like a busy area but then if you just walk a little bit farther down it's more remote and there's not a lot of people congregate in there. 50:59.888 --> 51:00.668 [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty quiet. 51:01.508 --> 51:17.875 [SPEAKER_00]: and I go sit there on the same bench and I just look at the water and usually I journal, I pray, I may listen to worship music or something, but or I just sit there silence and smell the water and feel the window in my face, but I thoroughly enjoy that place. 51:17.995 --> 51:19.196 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a DC area, 51:22.689 --> 51:28.451 [SPEAKER_00]: is a beautiful place you can enjoy it and have just beautiful falls and is a Maryland and a Virginia side. 51:28.931 --> 51:30.111 [SPEAKER_00]: You can go in a nice hike. 51:30.471 --> 51:32.072 [SPEAKER_00]: The views are beautiful. 51:32.732 --> 51:37.353 [SPEAKER_00]: There's where I live, it's just a lot of opportunity, but his point stands. 51:37.473 --> 51:45.015 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to own things without enjoying them, go and take part of the beauty of God's creations around you. 51:45.695 --> 51:47.556 [SPEAKER_00]: On that same note, number nine, 51:52.637 --> 51:57.221 [SPEAKER_00]: Number 10, cultivate a deep appreciation for the simple pleasures. 51:57.881 --> 52:03.165 [SPEAKER_00]: Number 11, I don't necessarily agree with, but it says, recognize advertising for what it is. 52:03.546 --> 52:05.547 [SPEAKER_00]: Propaganda, call out the lie. 52:06.308 --> 52:11.892 [SPEAKER_00]: He uses an example of making his a game out of calling out the lies and advertising. 52:12.493 --> 52:19.418 [SPEAKER_00]: With his kids, he says, see that new ad for Volvo, the model couple driving off into the new region. 52:20.759 --> 52:21.200 [SPEAKER_00]: Good one. 52:21.601 --> 52:24.125 [SPEAKER_00]: As if buying that car will make us look like models. 52:24.966 --> 52:25.887 [SPEAKER_00]: Ugh, that's nice. 52:27.838 --> 52:30.819 [SPEAKER_00]: There are rules against false advertising. 52:30.839 --> 52:40.062 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is just me being somebody who has studied marketing and advertising to where it is not propaganda. 52:40.102 --> 52:46.485 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I understand how this fits his narrative, but it's not necessarily true that marketing advertising are lies. 52:46.645 --> 52:52.267 [SPEAKER_00]: They have an agenda, of course, which is to get you to buy and they use creative methods like storytelling 52:53.207 --> 52:56.769 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, hitting people's pain points and all of that in order to encourage the sale. 52:57.090 --> 53:01.352 [SPEAKER_00]: But lying, there are rules against that false advertising. 53:01.393 --> 53:05.655 [SPEAKER_00]: There are laws against marketing campaigns lying. 53:06.336 --> 53:11.659 [SPEAKER_00]: So they're not explicitly saying that you're going to look like a model if you buy a Volvo. 53:11.699 --> 53:15.622 [SPEAKER_00]: They're just using that storytelling to get you to want to buy a Volvo. 53:16.062 --> 53:18.683 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a lie, it's just storytelling. 53:19.123 --> 53:26.044 [SPEAKER_00]: But nevertheless, I understand his point, but I think the greater point is just don't bad things that you don't actually be not that marketing itself. 53:26.484 --> 53:30.165 [SPEAKER_00]: See marketing as propaganda because it's, that's not true. 53:30.785 --> 53:36.487 [SPEAKER_00]: Lastly, number 12, lead a cheerful, happy revolt against the spirit of materialism. 53:37.207 --> 53:40.007 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's also self-explanatory. 53:43.837 --> 53:52.586 [SPEAKER_00]: actively rejecting the world's temptation of being materialistic and participating in materialism. 53:53.146 --> 54:04.898 [SPEAKER_00]: There's another small section at the end of this or contentment, but I think we can just loop that into the next final chapter and the final principle on how to live in unhurried life. 54:05.744 --> 54:07.504 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray to this episode, bless you. 54:08.185 --> 54:13.106 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know, leave a comment if you're on Spotify, post this episode, tell me what you think. 54:14.146 --> 54:15.186 [SPEAKER_00]: Send me an email. 54:15.246 --> 54:22.268 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious on a y'all's perspective on my critiques of his take on money. 54:22.428 --> 54:31.290 [SPEAKER_00]: And particularly, my me noticing how a lot of the nuance that presents itself around wealth and possessions, et cetera, 54:31.770 --> 54:36.797 [SPEAKER_00]: he overlooked even when using the scripture that illuminated said nuance. 54:36.817 --> 54:38.279 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's just interesting to me. 54:38.620 --> 54:40.042 [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me what you guys think about that. 54:40.362 --> 54:44.067 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Blessed Embossed that Park has. 54:44.368 --> 54:46.070 [SPEAKER_00]: I love you guys and I'll see you in the next one.