06-04-10

Not Your Average Minimalist

Had a big talk at church the other night about what my min­i­mal­ism is all about.  There were some ini­tial con­cerns among some peo­ple, but finally things were clar­i­fied and here’s the outcome.

From this point on, I will be appar­ently clear about my inten­tions for a min­i­mal­is­tic lifestyle.  I’m a Chris­t­ian, and Chris­tian­ity con­sumes every aspect of my life.  Sim­plic­ity, as advo­cated by Bud­dhism, is for the pur­pose of self-​​improvement and self-​​happiness.  Chris­tian­ity is intrin­si­cally oppo­site because it’s focused on God and oth­ers.  So, a Chris­t­ian would apply min­i­mal­ism to their lives to free them up to serve oth­ers better.

The Bible fully sup­ports a min­i­mal­is­tic lifestyle, but the motive is com­pletely dif­fer­ent.  So, you’re not going to find me quot­ing guys like Bud­dha when the Bible has plenty to say about the same sub­ject mat­ter.  Even though Bud­dha and Jesus might share the same prin­ci­pals, the roots of both belief sys­tems are antithetical.

So there you go, I’m a min­i­mal­ist Chris­t­ian, and this blog will reflect it from a Chris­t­ian world­view.  This blog is my jour­ney and hope­fully a resource to others.

Andrew is a 20-​​something Chris­t­ian who adopted a sim­plis­tic lifestyle after grad­u­at­ing from col­lege and real­iz­ing the van­ity of rush­ing around and all the mate­ri­al­ism of our soci­ety. He wants to squeeze the most out of life and live each day extra­or­di­nar­ily through sim­ple means. Andrew is the author and edi­tor of Live [Sim­ply] Free, and con­tin­ues on the jour­ney of declut­ter­ing and sim­pli­fy­ing his life. Fol­low him on Twit­ter @Andrew_Randazzo.
Andrew Randazzo
View all posts by Andrew Ran­dazzo
Andrews web­site
Posted by Andrew Randazzo » Minimalism
  • http://www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan jdblun­dell

    love the dis­tinc­tion. keep it up!

  • David

    Good. I was won­der­ing if there were any (Chris­t­ian min­i­mal­ists). West­ern Chris­tian­ity seems to have ceded min­i­mal­ism and envi­ron­men­tal­ism (among other things) to athe­ists and east­ern pan­the­ists. Not that they are not wel­come to it to but each are very chris­t­ian concepts.

  • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

    I’ve thought the same thing and found that inter­est­ing. There’s 3 other Chris­t­ian min­i­mal­ists that I know of: Jonathan Blun­dell (http://​welives​im​ply​.info), Daniel Richard (http://​thedaniel​richard​.com), and Luke Wil­son (http://​sim​plifi​.de).

    • Pas­cale

      Love your blog. Do you know any chris­t­ian women min­i­mal­ist (not nec­es­sar­ily moms) who have blogs?
      Pascale

      • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

        I’m sure they’re out there but not all min­i­mal­ist blog­gers say that they’re Chris­tians on their blog. I’ve dis­cov­ered most Chris­t­ian blog­gers just by cer­tain posts they’ve put up. So far, I haven’t found any women.

      • Tarako­rbe

        I am a chris­t­ian mom who is just start­ing the process. I am at the very begin­ning try­ing to dis­cover what it’s all about before I start pro­claim­ing I am a min­i­mal­ist. I don’t have a blog, but could very well start one. If I do I will let you know. Please let me know if you find one.

  • Angel

    I am so excited that I found your blog.. I have done a lot of research on being a min­i­mal­ist and I am start­ing the process but I am Chris­t­ian and most of the infor­ma­tion has a new age type rea­son behind liv­ing this way. There are many rea­sons to con­sider this lifestyle but I com­pletely think that Chris­tian­ity and min­i­mal­ism go hand in hand. So thanks!
    ~Angel

  • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

    Hey, I’m so glad you found me. I love run­ning into other peo­ple of like mind. There’s so much I’ve learned since start­ing a min­i­mal­ist lifestyle. I hope some of the stuff I write will help you along your journey.

  • Pingback: Minimalism in Action | Live [Simply] Free

  • Pingback: Minimalism in Action | Live [Simply] Free

  • Pingback: Traditional Minimalists Live In a Bubble | Live [Simply] Free