Radically Basic

Jesus was rad­i­cal because he was basic. The same tac­tics have also been used by the true spir­i­tual rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies of his­tory (all of them non-violent). Cham­pion the essence of being human and you will be praised for gen­er­a­tions to come. Stand up for what peo­ple need most and you will be a hero — even if you are cru­ci­fied for it (lit­er­ally or fig­u­ra­tively). Stick with the basics. Sim­plify your life. Have a pro­found effect.

It is amaz­ing how lit­tle we actu­ally need to live. It is even more amaz­ing how a one sen­tence phi­los­o­phy of life can be supe­rior to vol­umes of cir­cuitous debate. Jesus did not carry a library with him. He did not have to. He just car­ried with him one spir­i­tual build­ing block idea — from whence all of the rest flowed: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength — and love your neigh­bor as yourself.”

All that mat­ters today or on any other day is that this one sen­tence sum­mary con­tin­ues in your life and mine. The rest of life is just fluff. Phys­i­cally we need our “daily bread” (the body can live quite well on water, air, and a min­i­mum of pro­tein and car­bo­hy­drates). One dol­lar per day of real food can sus­tain you just fine. Every­thing else on the shelf has more to do with mar­ket­ing than nutrition.

Churches do not need build­ings — all they need are two or three gath­ered in his name. The church can travel very light. It can live in the heart of a child as well or bet­ter than in a sem­i­nary or a cathe­dral. It does not need the decep­tive rhetoric of pol­i­tics, trendy philoso­phies, or media hype. A sim­ple prayer, a cup of water in his name, or just a lis­ten­ing ear is all it takes to reach out to others.

Today you need a lit­tle food and a lot of love. An hour of labor will earn you the first, the sec­ond is freely given and received. For this rea­son, I live with no fears con­cern­ing the econ­omy, career, health, or age. In the land of the fran­tic, you too can be the calmest per­son around. All you have to be is rad­i­cally basic.