Infinite Expectations of the Dawn: The Spiritual and Prophetic Message of Henry David Thoreau

Decluttering is all the rage these days. With the popularity of Japanese author Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” and the Netflix series, “Tidying Up” some have been finding new ways of culling and organizing possessions. Henry David Thoreau has recently been called “The first Declutterer.” His “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity” exhortation in Walden is only one indication of how his prophetic witness and his spiritual life were intertwined. In this service, we will draw some personal and practical lessons from Thoreau who wrote: “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake…by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us on even in our soundest sleep.”