I bought some knock-off Tommy Hilfiger dock shoes for around $12 in Lima, Peru in 2002. I can't wear the darn things out, so I keep wearing them. It's part of my overall commitment to live simply. Ghandi showed us how it's done and the power of his example was so great that he turned India upside down.

Something inside us presses for bigger and better. Why buy a van when you can get an SUV? And why buy an SUV when a fully loaded Expedition can be had for just $100 more a month?

I'm not saying you're a sinner if you own an SUV. We're all entitled to make personal choices. What's right for one person may not be for another. Goodness knows we need to stop judging people. What I am saying is this: there is beauty in simplicity. Jesus lived simply. He gave us the example of a homeless man who was able to focus on ministry partly because he was not encumbered with a lot of stuff he needed to take care of.

Within a couple of years, the debt loads we carry in America will at last catch up with us, causing the dollar to crash and forcing the simpler lifestyle Jesus modeled whether we like it or not. Rising interest rates and the slow popping of the real estate bubble are just the start. We've been living beyond our means for too long.