A Lenten 30 Days of Nothing

Edit to Add:   We are changing the start date (to allow more of you to join us ) to Monday, February 26th.  This gives us all more time to plan and prepare, as well as talk with our families.      

How the other half lives…and dies.   

I have four children. When they woke up this morning I kissed them and made them a good healthy breakfast. 30,000 other children died.

….The disparity haunts me. How does a Christ-follower reconcile the needs of the world with the realities of every day life in an affluent nation? I just don’t know – but we’re going to spend a month trying to find out.   –Tonia, Founder of 30 Days of Nothing

A friend and I are going to celebrate Lent for the very first time this year, and we’ve chosen to do so by experiencing 30 Days of Nothing. 

For one small month, we will take a moment to remember that we are truly the rich of the world, that even though the third world is practically invisible in my little life, it is not invisible to God.  I “suffer” when I decide to wait to make an Amazon purchase until the next paycheck.  My sister in the third world suffers wondering if her baby will wake up in the morning, or die like the baby before him did.  

Holy Experience writes here,

…I repent
of my greed
for more,
another book, another vehicle, another pair of shoes,
when the widows and orphans don’t have food, heat, or a place to lay their head…

I freely admit that for me, it is almost impossible to imagine not living in a consumer-driven world.  I want, I want, I want, with very little need, and this has been my way of life from birth. So consider this a fast of sorts, a hands-on prayer for the suffering, as well as a personal reckoning for my own (usually unrealized) consumeristic greed.  

“Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? 

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him…?”  —Isaiah 58: 6-7a 

 We’re keeping it simple, this 30 Day adventure.  We know that there’s nothing we can do to fully alleviate the suffering of the downtrodden or to fully experience their poverty, except on the most miniscule of scales, yet, even the smallest of steps is one step forward.  It seems like that’s a good enough place to start. 

For the next 30 Days, we will not be making any purchases outside of basic necessities.  We will limit our clothing selection to a few simple choices.  We will experience what it is like to eat the same simple things, over and over again. 

 On average, the people of Madagascar, or Malagasy, earn about $10 a month, Jay said. He said the country’s main agriculture crop is rice, and that it is such a staple of their diet that they eat it three meals a day and occasionally top it with beans or some type of meat… [full article here]

On some days, we will enter into a third world way of life a little more—a day without electricity, a day where we walk to get our water, a day where we all sleep in one room, a day where we work all day cleaning houses and recieve only pennies as a wage, a day where we wash clothes by hand.  These particular things, of course, will change from home to home, as 30 Days is not a set of rules-to-keep but a fluid experience, one that we each can personalize to fit our own unique situations.   

All the while, we will be privately journaling, recording our reactions, what it felt like, what we learn.  We don’t do this because we think it will earn us brownie points with God, but more to make ourselves more aware of how the majority of the planet lives. 

We want to identify with them, if only in small part, as well as take it one step further.  The money we save by living simply will be given to World Vision and similar such groups working to give helping hands to the people living in 3rd world countries. 

And last but not least: we would love for you to join us. 

This is a no pressure offer, meaning no guilt for those who can’t participate or who don’t want to.  If you are interested and have a website, please feel free to use the banner at the top of this page to help spread the word.  My family is starting this coming Monday, February 26th (but if you don’t want to join us right now, please know that an ”official” start date is any day you choose–this can work any time in the year).      

Some helpful links for those who would like to learn more:   

Many bloggers participated in 30 Days this past September (2006).  A few links journaling their experience include: The 30 Days Website, Fruitful Words on 30 Days,  Owl Haven on 30 Days (scroll down and start at bottom), Holy Experience’s 30 Days—don’t miss her Walking for Water, and Just Enjoy the Journey on 30 Days.   

Many others are thinking similar thoughts, both rejecting a consumer culture lifestyle and wanting to identify more with the suffering hidden from our view:  Wiki on Buy Nothing Day (similar idea), The Simple Living Network (doing more with less), information about The Compact (similar idea), a woman who wore one little brown dress for a year as a project in living simply, or here for unsettling facts about fellow sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. 

Also of interest, around the same time Tonia began 30 Days, another group had a similar idea and did a 40 Days as a church gathering, creating this (highly readable) pdf file, full of ideas, links, and interesting facts about 3rd world poverty.  You can use as you personalize your own 30 (or 40) Days experience, to learn more about how the other half (or more than half) lives, or just to see the pink elephant in my living room.