Last week I had the distinct pleasure of embarking on a canoe trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area with several of our parishioners.  It was a fantastic trip as we journeyed through the woods and upon the waters of one of Minnesota’s true natural gems.  We are so blessed to have this fine example of God’s handiwork so close to us.

I’ve lost count on how many BWCA trips I have been, but probably around fifty or so.  I started to come up to Minnesota from my home in Tennessee with my dad in the early 70’s.  He had been canoeing in the Boundary Waters since he was a boy scout in the 30’s, and he was anxious to get his young family into this pristine wilderness area.  I’ve learned a lot in all of those years and on all of those trips, but much of what I have learned may be boiled down to this: less is more.

You see, BWCA canoe trips are not for the faint of heart. They are physically strenuous and require not just paddling many miles across lakes, but also portaging all of one’s gear across the usually very poor hiking paths that link lakes.  Because it is a wilderness area, all of this paddling and portaging must happen without aid of any mechanized equipment.  Not only are motors prohibited, one may not use anything that even has a wheel.  A manual cart, for example, a device that is so helpful to me in getting my paddleboard from my house to the beach on White Bear Lake, is not allowed in the BWCA.  Because of this, people who are experienced with BWCA trips learn to go light. Lighter gear and less food/equipment usually leads to a happier, more fulfilling experience.  Over the years, it has become somewhat of a game for me to discover just how little clothing, food and equipment I need to be safe and have fun in the wilderness.  I have found that, truly, less is more.

Most of us play a very different sort of game in our everyday lives. Our American economy is fundamentally based upon people purchasing things, and we have become really good at this game.  Most of us have so much more than we really need, and indeed, many of us would concede that all of this stuff weighs heavily upon us. The material things of our lives become more burden than blessing; the things of our lives that were promised to provide abundant life, instead suck the life right out of us.  So many of us have discovered the oxymoronic truth that just as less is more, more is less.

We really don’t need much.  In his sermon on the mount, Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”  In other words, don’t sweat it!  God loves us and will give us what we need to live full and abundant lives. It is true that having enough and having what one needs is a very good thing.  But it is also true that having too much can be a very bad thing.

May we be grateful for what we have.  May we be generous with what we have.  And may we learn the lesson yet once again that, so often, what is true in the wilderness is true also when we get back home… Less is More.

~Father Art