Developing a lifestyle of simplicity is not simple!

Having previously written about simplicity, I find myself unable to take the next step. My mind is ready but other parts of me are rebelling. I wish developing a simplicity of life were more simple! And, I wish I could blame others for making my life complicated. The truths are, developing a simplicity of life is complicated and no one but me makes it so! I alone complicate my life; I choose how to work, live at home, structure my time. No one complicates my life but me!

A former Dallas Theological Seminary president, Dr Lewis Sperry Chafer once said, "Much of our activity is little more than a cheap anaesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty life." Ouch...that hurt! “Our life is frittered away by detail," Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) states in his world-famous book Walden, published in 1854. “Simplify, simplify”!

I have come to believe that I will never achieve a simplicity of life without intimacy. I can't skip steps and where I choose to "dig in my heels" is the very spot where this transforming work will end. Looking ahead, I see that the discipline of slowing my pace opens the door to silence and solitude. A lot is at stake.

So, my hope for us today is that we will embrace the process of simplicity. The decision is to reorder my private world through the discipline of simplicity. It will not come easily, naturally, quickly or automatically.

This means:

• saying "no" more
• evaluating my commitments and making necessary adjustments
• being content with the Lord's definition of "enough"
• sharing the load

This means unlearning:

• pace does not equal progress or demonstrate importance
• constant activity is a sign of importance or a full life

Just curious, how are you doing with this process? Have you started your journey with serious intentions to change? Are you willing to pay the price? I sure wish living a life of simplicity were more simple!