Now look at that! There is a discipline that I unknowingly named by blog after! Needless to say, since it is already a concept I feel strongly about, I loved learning about this discipline.
Simplicity as Foster describes, "escapes us because we have no unity or focus around which our lives are oriented." "Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us."
Simplicity starts with an inward change of lifestyle. If the inward desire for a less cluttered life is absent, then it will look and feel like a legalistic work. Any sort of outward expression of a simple lifestyle has to be motivated by an inner feeling of freedom. Freedom is the feeling of enjoying what we have been given. It is the opposite of shame, which is what we feel when our lives are not ordered correctly. Shame separates us from God. So, to combat that shame, one would practice simplicity Simplicity causes me to put God first always. Simplicity shows me that when the right first thing is first, everything else fits into place. The inward focus of simplicity causes me to orient all of my life around God. When I orient all my life and possessions around God first, I begin to start seeing those things as His. And when I truly attest that all of my possessions are God's, I become much more thankful for all that He has given to me. When I am grateful for all that I have been given, then I find that I trust God for His full sustainability I no longer have to worry about hoarding more and more stuff because I trust God will provide. When I start to trust in God's provision, I begin to share things with others. And giving away to others is an outward sign of simplicity.
Do you see how that outward discipline of simplicity stemmed from a long line of inward transformation? It has to be inward first. And that inward has to be a sense of freedom.
One of the things that stands out to me about simplicity is that it might be one of the most counter-cultural. A lot of these other disciplines are being taught by the Church and practiced by it's members. In America, simplicity is not taught nor practiced correctly. Americans are consumers and proud of it. Christians are not immune to that consumerism. There are dozens of passages in scripture that talk about riches and wealth and none of them talk about storing up material possessions for ourselves on earth. In fact, they all make claim that wealthy people are not healthy Christians. I have heard only a handful of sermons on wealth in my life, and I disagreed with almost all of them. I have heard some about how we must all give away everything we own and live on the streets. I have heard several with the underlying message that storing wealth is okay as long as you tithe a decent amount. But the most common message on wealth is the ever famous prosperity gospel. But I have not heard one good sermon on the spiritual damage that a disoriented life can have even the most well-meaning Christian. This makes the message of simplicity all the more urgent.
Consumerism is a barrier to my spiritual life that I have committed to overcoming. I cannot put a date and time on when I decided to live like that, but it has definitely been a couple of years. I think over time I just became aware of all of the negative influence I saw in people. I witnessed greed and selfishness from money and stuff well up in people, and I ended up not even wanting to be around them. So I have committed to eliminating all the clutter in my life that other get so hung up on. I have spent a lot of time developing an inner spirit of freedom that creates my outward lifestyle of simplicity. I agreed with everything Foster said and everything we discussed in class, and for this blog I even put on my own opinions in. I am so grateful that I get to put my own personal experience from previous years into this blog.
I have a very basic cell-phone and a very basic laptop. I have had the same car since I turned sixteen. I have a closet full of (cute) clothes that I buy on clearance. I live in a modest home. My life is very free of hoarding and cluttering of possessions. I do not hang onto any of my possessions in an unhealthy way. I do not obsess over the "new." I do not marvel at the latest and greatest piece of technology. I do not read gossipy fashion magazines that keep me up on the latest style. I ignore ads on tv that tempt me into a consumeristic lifestyle I work very, very hard to avoid the temptation of wealth and enjoy my freedom in Christ. I am not sharing this arrogantly, I am sharing that to explain that I had trouble coming up with a practice this week. for the sake of this assignment, I struggled to come up with a practice that would be new or tangible. I already do several things on a regular basis to ensure that I have rightly ordered loves. Instead of writing about all of the things I do on a regular basis or blabbing about how I created an inner spirit of simplicity, I just want to reiterate that there are several ways to do simplicity. The one I found this week may be different from my classmates, but I just spent time reflecting on what I have changed over the past few years, and what has worked and what has not. I also spent a lot of time reflecting on previous disciplines and how those most definitely have a place in my life as simplicity.
The result of that reflection is complicated. Only because life is complicated. There are a lot of layers to simplicity and the life that I am living. One thing that I reflected that I could do differently is give more. Sure I do not store up a lot for myself, but what am I doing for others? That is a discipline I would like to add to my life. I also decided there are several other disciplines I want to do regularly to keep God at the center. Meditation, fasting, and prayer are just a few that I am continuing to do now. These are things that I will be more able to measure in the future, but for this week, simplicity has taught me to often reflect on how things have gone thus far. It is okay to stop and reorient so that the reorientation will continue to go smoothly.
I am grateful for the conversation on simplicity this week. This is something I will continue to be passionate about.
Thank you for reading.
Blessings,
Alyssa
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