Keep It Simple Sweetie: A Christian Counselor on Clearing Life’s Clutter

So many things just seem to attach themselves to us that we simply call them “stuff.” We seem to have all become kleptomaniacs, collecting so much glittery stuff that it impairs our lives.

Making Life Complex

Keeping up with changing technology forces us to always purchase the latest gadget: computer, phone, program, electronic media equipment, video game player, etc. But the old gadgets tend to cling to us as well.

Keeping up with the Joneses also impels us to purchase the latest fads and styles. We purchase clothes, toys, cars, adult toys, recreational equipment, and other things. Keeping up with the latest trends propels many of us to purchase the latest books and magazines on our “field of expertise.” But it also causes many more to purchase and collect daily newspapers.

Much of this has to do with keeping up our image. “We are what we own.” If we have more or better things, or the latest stuff, others will have a better image of us. In fact, we will think better of ourselves.

The “what ifs” also keep us acquiring stuff. “What if” we need a tool, a part, a chair, an audio or video, an item of food, a book, a matching clothing item, a decoration ̶ and the list goes on almost endlessly.

All these things clutter up our living spaces and consume a considerable amount of our finances. They clutter up our thoughts as we think about them, plan our purchases, search for them, organize them, and maintain them. Consequently, they clutter up and consume most of our time. Our lives are a clutter.

The One Thing

In the movie City Slickers, the city cowboys kept asking the “real cowboy” the question: “What is the meaning of life?” He would respond: “One thing.” He died, but without defining the “one thing” and so left his questioners perplexed. I suspect that the point is that it is one thing – not two or three or four. Self-help guru Stephen Covey advises that “effective people” have “one really big hairy audacious goal” in life. Multiple goals only dilute and distract.

What is your “one thing,” your “really big hairy audacious goal”? For Christians, one’s “calling” or “vocation” is the same as the disciples’ one primary goal or focus. For Christianity’s first 1500 years or so, “vocation” had primarily to do with Christian callings to ministry and lifestyle, whether ordained ministry (priest, deacon, bishop), monastic calling (monk, nun), or marriage. In the sixteenth century, theologians broadened the term “vocation” to mean “jobs” so that at present it is mostly associated with “career.”

What has God called you to do or to be? Although we humans play multiple roles in life, if you don’t know your “one really big hairy audacious goal,” then you will easily become distracted.

The One Thing Needful

It really comes down to God’s first commandment given by Moses: “I am the Lord your God… You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20.2-3) It is the Jewish Shema: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” (Deut 6.4) Even as Jesus is one with God, so when we join with Jesus, we become one with God. (Jn 17.21)

Kierkegaard wrote a book entitled, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. Every choice we make sacrifices all the other choices we could have made. Kreeft postulates that, “Simplicity leads to virtue because complexity leads to vice. … For complexity leads to complicity and to compromise.” (Making Choices, pp. 148-9)

We cannot have “God and…” Our thoughts, our actions, and our will need to be directed to God alone. Simple faith says, “God said it, that settles it, and I believe it.” Simple hope says, “God promised it, so I’ll wait for it.” Simple love says, “God has commanded it, so I will obey.” Kreeft concluded that, “The secret of the saints is obscure only because it is so simple: the simple secret is being simple.” (p. 174) Sitting at the feet of Jesus in childlike simplicity (Mk 10.15) is the “one thing needful.” (Lk 10.42) Mary told those who heard the command of Jesus, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2.5) It’s that simple.

Christian Counseling to Simplify Your Life

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the clutter of life and want help to pursue the “one thing necessary,” a spiritual director or Christian counselor can assist you in clearing your external and internal clutter. To find out more about how a Christian counselor can help you to discover the one thing needful in your life, please contact me here.