GOOD-centric Exterior Spiritual Disciplines:

To live out goodness, fairness, and love

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Absence of Luxury, Pretentiousness, Ornament

“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” ~ Plato

Stuff. How much stuff do we need? Neither the GOD-centric nor the GOOD-centric is ascetic. We affirm life and the enjoyment of life; but, we ask: Is life really more enjoyed if you have three televisions rather than two or a 40" screen rather than 35"? Would a 5,000 sq. ft. house really foster a warmer sense of home than a 3,000 sq. ft. house? Will that $400 handbag accomplish more than the $20 version? Are all those extra hours spent at work to pay that big mortgage really worth it? Is paying for, storing, and maintaining all this stuff impeding our ability to live in and out love, goodness, and fairness?

The GOOD-centric exterior spiritual discipline of simplicity challenges us to make intentional decisions about how we spend our money and how many possessions we accumulate. Simplicity challenges us to be frugal. Clearing the physical clutter from our lives frees us to pay attention to what really matters. Not accumulating stuff at all frees us to spend our financial resources on building a more loving, good, and fair world through public service and stewardship of the environment:

Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of…To be frugal means to have a high joy-to-stuff ratio… Frugality is being efficient in harvesting happiness from the world you live in. Frugality is right use – the wise stewarding of money, time, energy, space, and possessions… Nothing is wasted. Or left unused. It’s a clean machine…The jumping off point for a life of being fulfilled, learning and contributing to the welfare of the planet. (Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robins, Your Money or Your Life)