Living on Less

Recently I received an e-mail with the subject line, “You can live on less when you have more to live for.” This profound and thought-provoking statement so struck me that I literally stopped my expeditious handling of all my e-mails and just pondered it.

This is not a statement about an involuntary “belt-tightening”; instead, it describes someone who chooses to voluntarily shrink his or her current lifestyle””a willing reduction.

A typical financial planning objective for those with surplus cash flow and excess wealth is to ensure that they can maintain their current lifestyle while doing all their inheritance and charitable planning. The key word here is maintain. In other words, “I am willing to be as charitable as possible with my wealth as long as it does not negatively impact my current lifestyle.”

But this statement suggests there might be some reasons why a person would want to reduce his rate of personal consumption (what we call the “burn rate”) and live on less.

So what might happen to lead a person who could live on more””much more””to happily and willingly choose to live on less? The quote from my e-mail gives a clue. They have found something “more to live for”””something more valuable and more fulfilling to them than self-
consumption.

As I pondered this statement, I asked myself, What would it take for me or anyone else to willingly choose to live on less? I decided something would need to change in one or more of these three areas: one”s perspective, one”s priorities; and/or one”s purpose.

A Change in Perspective
If there is any redemption to an airplane window seat, it is the view. (I usually choose the aisle seat so I won”t feel trapped.) I must confess, nothing gives me a more realistic perspective of life than looking at the world from 35,000 feet.

Elevation seems to give us a substantially different perspective on the “things of earth.” If we could pile up all of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett”s “stuff” in one place, it might not even be noticeable from 35,000 feet. How much less significant are things if viewed from the footstool of Heaven. If a man were to see the trappings of his current lifestyle from the perspective of Heaven, he might just conclude there is something “more to live for” than the insignificant and temporary creature comforts of his current lifestyle.

Matthew 13:44-46 gives us a picture of what happens when someone”s perspective changes. Jesus said,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Their perception of the value of their current possessions was totally redefined when they discovered something they perceived to be of far greater worth. There is an old riddle, “Do you know how to get a bone out of a dog”s mouth?” The answer is, “Offer him a bone with more meat on it.”

We will gladly “live on less” when our perspective is reoriented and reveals something “more to live for.” By downsizing, we would actually be upgrading!

A Change in Priorities
We all have a list of priorities. These are seldom written down and placed on the refrigerator, but we all have them stored away somewhere in the recesses of our consciousness. When given a choice between two options, our list of priorities reminds us to choose the one highest on the list. This is true with our time and our treasures.

If faced with a decision of watching your child”s ball game or playing golf with your best friends, the option you choose will demonstrate your priorities. If you had to choose between helping your child with her college expenses or buying a new car, your priorities will determine which choice you make. And, likewise, when given the choice between deploying your material resources for kingdom purposes or buying a bigger home or the latest luxury car, your priorities will determine your choice.

Not long ago I counseled a younger couple who had done extremely well professionally and financially. The husband and wife came from nothing, and as their businesses grew and their income skyrocketed, so did their lifestyle. They found themselves with an extravagant home, the newest and most expensive vehicles, and all the toys and trappings of a family who had “made it.”

But something happened to this couple along the way. God began to burden them with the call of the Great Commission and the need to get the gospel out while there was still time””before Jesus” return. And quite apart from any influence by me, the husband had already decided he wanted to become one of the greatest Christian philanthropists in history.

In order to do this, the couple has begun to cut their lifestyle consumption by multiples in order to have more available to deploy for kingdom work. They are selling their mansion and moving into a modest home. They are buying cheaper used cars and intend to drive them until they cannot be driven anymore.

His goal now is to build as many businesses as he can and grow them as much as he can so he can give as much as possible to the kingdom during the rest of his life. Talk about a change in priorities!

For a man to choose to “live on less,” he must radically reorder existing priorities. These newly reordered priorities likely will reveal to him that there is much “more to live for.”

A Change in Purpose
In one of my slide-show presentations, I ask, “What on earth am I doing with all this wealth?” I think it is an eminently practical and important question that each person must answer. And how we answer that question will be reflected by what we choose to do with our material possessions. Did God give us excess material possessions to increase our lifestyle or to increase our kingdom impact? Did our Father provide us with surplus resources so we could be “rich in lifestyle” or “rich in good deeds” (1 Timothy 6:18)?

I can think of no more powerful example of “You can live on less when you have more to live for,” than what is vividly demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus himself. Second Corinthians 8:9 tells us, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Jesus was the richest “man” in the universe and yet, facing a divine purpose that collided with his exalted place in Heaven, he willingly “humbled himself” and “made himself nothing” (Philippians 2:6-8) and came to a dirty, sin-filled planet to accomplish this divine purpose. He downsized from a throne in Heaven to a cross on Calvary.

Jesus was pursuing a purpose that required him to radically reduce his preferred lifestyle in order to carry out a grand and noble purpose””the redemption of the entire human race.

None of us can escape this probing question: If Jesus, being rich, became poor for us so that we could be rich, what does he intend for us to do with those riches we have gained from his voluntary poverty? We need to soberly ponder this question.

For a man to choose to “live on less” will require a radical reorientation of his life purpose. This reorientation will reveal to him that there is indeed a greater life purpose that will give him even “more to live for.”

“You can live on less when you have more to live for.” Maybe each of us should humbly reconsider our current perspective, our current priorities, and our current purpose. It”s possible if we honestly assess these three areas of our lives, and humbly attempt to align them with the perspective, priorities, and purpose of Christ, we might just find we will be glad to “live on less” because in so doing we will have found “more to live for”””much more.

E. G. “Jay” Link is president of Stewardship Ministries (www.stewardshipministries.org) in Mooresville, Indiana. Reach him at [email protected]. Hear him January 9, 11 a.m. EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/standardpublishing. This article is ©2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.