Should All Christians Become Minimalists?

In short, my answer is yes—all Christians should become minimalists.

Let me explain why I believe this, and maybe you’ll understand why.

While I was learning more about Jesus in the early stages of my faith, I couldn’t shake the surprising call Jesus made to live with less. He didn’t explicitly say it, but His statements about the rich man and treasures in heaven sliced me to the core.

As a result, I decided to live with less. I only packed one bag when I travelled for an entire summer, I packed two boxes when I moved to a different house, and I wore the same shoes since middle school. I lived a life of owning less.

Yet, while I was going through this time, I discovered: I wasn’t experiencing the freedom that many people talk about when they discuss the benefits of minimalism. In fact, I felt even more trapped.

When you live with less, sometimes you care more for the little things you have.

That’s what happened to me. I lived with less because I didn’t like losing my stuff. I cared more for my things because they were the only items I had.

Here’s the truth: living minimally isn’t only about owning less; it’s about treasuring less.

As Jesus said, our treasures should be in heaven, not on earth. Our value should not reside in things we can’t keep.

Realizing this, I had to rework the wirings in my brain that said these possessions I had mattered. Truth is, they didn’t. I could go without them and be fine.

Today, many of us mistake minimalism for owning less stuff, but if we examine the root problem, we’ll realize that the reason we want to own less is because we want to care less.

Minimalism is about reducing what you value. It is a healthy response to overabundance and excessive consumerism, which tells us to care about more things.

In this case, I believe not only Christians should become minimalists; I believe everyone should become a minimalist.

After understanding minimalism more, here’s what I worked out to be the incredible benefits of caring for less:

1. Less to be accountable for

You already have to keep track of the people in your life. Why add more stuff into the mix? Keep your accountability focused on the more valuable things of life, like your friends and family.

2. Less to distract you

Distraction takes away from the important things of life. The more we’re distracted, the more we have to work and the less time we have for family. With less items and less care, you can get rid of the unnecessary distraction in your life.

3. Less to show

When you have something to show and be prideful about, you have something that stunts true connection. True connection with others happens when we bear our true and natural self, not when we showcase our ideal image. Things might make us look better short-term, but they hurt our relationships in the long-term.

4. Less to keep you fearful

I heard someone once say that the reason we own more things is because we’re scared. We’ve built our safety nets in the number of stuff we own. And because we keep feeding our fear with more stuff and more to care about, we stay stuck in that fear of safety and security. Instead, embrace the unknowingness of life. Learn to be brave in the uncertainty and you’ll take greater risks.

I believe every person should become a minimalist because minimalism isn’t about owning less, it’s more about caring less.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a perfect minimalist. I still cringe when people place a cup of water right next to my computer. But I’m slowly learning that the less I care about the stuff in my life, the more room I allow for better, more life-giving things to enter in.

Photography by Mikaela Hamilton