My younger brother gave me my first Wendell Berry book several years ago and I’ve been moved by him—an activist, farmer, writer, follower of Christ—and his life ever since. So I want to share an excerpt from his Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, that deeply struck me the first time I read it.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, ?vacation with pay. Want more? of everything ready-made. Be afraid? to know your neighbors and to die.? And you will have a window in your head. ?Not even your future will be a mystery? anymore. Your mind will be punched in a card ?and shut away in a little drawer.? When they want you to buy something ?they will call you. When they want you ?to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something? that won’t compute. Love the Lord.? Love the world. Work for nothing.? Take all that you have and be poor.? Love someone who does not deserve it.

Be like the fox ?who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.? Practice resurrection.

So now, as I look into a new year, I feel the strong tension of wanting more—the profit, the vacation, the purchase—and the need for less—to resist consumption, to be willing to be poor, to work for nothing. And that is a challenging tension for me to hold because I like things, I like profit, I like the feeling of a purchase. And we live in a culture that encourages that. A society that rewards those who seek for themselves. But what would it mean for me to realize that recklessly consuming goods, experiences, a predictable “vacations with pay” lifestyle, and selfishly looking for my own advantage or profit will render me little more than a pawn of society—not a child of Christ? So this year I am challenging myself to live for what is deeper. To know my neighbors. To invest in the marginalized. To work for nothing. To embrace the virtues of poverty. To consume less. To practice resurrection. For what would my life look like if I not only believed in the resurrection of Christ but practiced it? I know it would not look like seeking more stuff to satisfy whims, or looking for my own profit, or turning my back on injustices around me. So this year I pray and hope God will grant me the strength to daily see the finished work of Christ—the power of the resurrection—and to practice that in my life.