Intentional Use
“Consumption is not the problem—thoughtless consumption is.”
- Joshua Millburn
Mr. Millburn said it best in his quote from his famous book called Love People, Use Things. This quote ties in perfectly to the title of his book as it describes how we consume things, or how I like to see it, how we use things.
Throughout every facet of life we are consuming things. These things can be content from Instagram, conversations with friends, books, or podcasts. The list is endless. I don’t think it is possible not to consume things even if you are working towards a very minimalistic lifestyle. There is not anything wrong with consuming things but thoughtless consumption and thoughtless use may have its issues.
To me use and consumption go hand in hand - they are intertwined like myself and kombucha are intertwined, or better yet like myself and a honey crisp apple.
Every day we are faced with the choice - a hard choice, but a choice nonetheless - to decide what we consume and what we use. To break down reality into very simple terms, there are things and then there are people. Things and people get tossed around way to heedlessly.
I have noticed in my 22 years on this earth that a lot of times the goal is a thing and the cost is a person. I have seen - as a lot of us probably have - the thing be money/fame/power and the cost to acquisition be a persons reputation/livelihood/trust. What if the opposite were true. What if a persons goal was another person and the cost of acquisition were things. Think of the power we could wield by putting others before us and above us…
Now lets be realistic - not to say I don’t think this is possible - but more to say that there are still goals, dreams, and destinations that we all would like to reach. I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting success. I don’t see an issue with you working towards financial freedom. I sure don’t see a problem with someone yearning for a G Wagon because lets be honest - they are quite beautiful and wow rolling up to CAVA in a G would not be half bad. Okay I am getting ahead of myself. But first let me manifest that - okay done.
Reeling it back in. Obviously those are all things and well things unfortunately don’t make it through the gates of heaven - only people do. I apologize if I just spoiled your dream of bringing your bag a cash, Dyson hairdryer, or PlayStation with you to heaven. FIFA and Call of Duty won’t mean so much to you in the presence of God.
I have as most of us probably have, struggled with using people to get things. It is a hard battle to fight. I have - I will admit - used people. I’ll keep it real - I have leveraged someone’s trust in order to get a way with something or to score something I wanted. Did I succeed in obtaining the thing I wanted. Yes. Was I proud of it? Of course not. There is a reason you don’t feel so hot after using someone to get what you want. It is because we are not meant to use people. We are meant and frankly called to love people, cherish people, lift people up, and put them before ourselves. Yes there are things on earth. Yes use them. Hell - use them as much as you want. But I guess what I am trying to say is use them with intention. When we thoughtlessly use or consume we are setting ourselves up for a multitude of problems. Whether you like it or not aimlessly using or consuming can lead to our minds or hearts wondering in directions we really don’t want to go and without really knowing it.
Sorta kind of fires me up - letting others or things steer us in directions we don’t really want to end up in.
I’ll leave you with this. Take back the power of intention. Choose to consume and choose to use things. Do it with purpose but NOT at the expense of others. The people around you are blessings - not debit cards, not step stools, and absolutely not trash.
Sometimes my posts are a little scattered but I write what I feel. I write what shoots up to my little brain as it comes. I don’t really overthink anything - I just let that cursor flow.
Be great peeps - Love people and Use things.