The Virtue of Poverty

No, I'm not talking about entitlement or the "cycle of poverty" that reinforces it. I'm not talking about starvation, malnutrition, or the lack of basic medical attention.  I'm talking about simple living and the freedom that comes from the lack of material possessions. For some people who have abundant income this is called Voluntary Simplicity.  I spent a summer in Quito, Ecuador for a summer, living out of a suitcase, and it was wonderful! When we store up material treasures, a lot of time (and money) is spent maintaining, cleaning and repairing those material possessions.  For most of us, we don't even realize how much time and money we spend fixin' stuff.  Some of the side benefits of simplicity: mobility to pursue the journey towards our vocation /calling, more time to spend on the important stuff like prayer and relationships, and less dependence on our factory job.  But the principal benefit and reason to move towards simplicity, at least for our family, is obedience. 

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

- Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

Of course, for those of us currently living a wealthy lifestyle, the journey towards poverty usually doesn't take place overnight, and there isn't any black and white rule for what level of simplicity is "good" and what level of wealth is "bad".  The important part seems to be the journey.  Even Saint Francis recognized the need for caution when embracing poverty, especially for families. When he established his Third Order (now called the Secular Franciscan Order), he understood and expressed the importance of taking care of our families, and intentionally left out the vow of strict poverty that were present in the first and second orders. 

In my own family, we have put several things in place to move us along the road to poverty, but we also recognize the need for further changes, and we're glad to be making progress.  We often dry our clothes on a line instead of using an electric drier.  We're starting our third year of gardening.  When we need new clothes, we usually check thrift stores before buying new.  We rarely buy convenience foods.  We're building our own house without a mortgage, using a timber frame structure and straw bales for in-fill.  We just started making our own soap this year. We bake our own bread, with whole wheat that we grind. We still feel the need to sell one of our 2 vehicles so that we only have one. We still feel like we have too many toys around the house, too many books on the shelves, and too many clothes in the closet.  So, we still have work to do, but we're on the journey, and we continually appreciate the benefits