Simplicity

By Lee Millen

I’ve always been attracted to simplicity.  There’s something about it that is so….. simple!  

In fact, I am so attracted to simplicity that I married my husband on the basis of his simple-ness!  Don’t get me wrong, he is extremely clever and never ceases to amaze me with his ability to understand anything and remember everything (which can also be highly annoying at times!) but it is because he is refreshingly easy to work out.  I appreciate this about him, like I appreciate the simplicity of turning a TV on with the push of 1 button.  There have been times when I have had to phone my husband to ask him how to turn our TV on (a task that requires 3 remote controls and the pushing of 4 buttons).  

I struggle with overcomplicated instructions, with too many details, with unnecessary stuff, with excess.   My home is ordered to the point that every item has its place (including my husband and children sometimes!!) and I get satisfaction from that.  I’m not a minimalist, but I enjoy being uncluttered –it brings my head calmness and peace that an otherwise busy working day erodes away.

 

My pursuit of simplicity follows me to the realm of social media and networking (this and the fact that I am a ‘slight’ technophobe).  I don’t twitter or tweet.  I have no idea what MySpace is other than in the context of ‘uh-humm, darling that is my space for my perfume, please leave your aftershave in its allocated space’.  I am not fussed with Facebook and I definitely don’t blog! 

I like the basics.  I don’t hoard.  I love up-cycling, recycling, re-using, re-purposing.  I’m a homemade kind of girl.  I don’t over-consume.  Or at least I thought I didn’t until a friend gave me a book.  Now I can’t think straight and straight has always been my friend – I like straight and now I can’t find it.  The book is based on an experimental mutiny against excess and its observations are cluttering my head and I can’t handle it.  I DON’T DO CLUTTER!! 

  

The reality is I have SO much.  I am a consumer through and through.  I have far more than I ever need.  In fact, I rarely need.  I mostly want.  

My basic needs are always met on a daily basis.  My kitchen cupboards are stocked and my wardrobe is full (even when ‘I have nothing to wear’).  Before I got married I could fit my worldly possessions into the back of a car.  Now, my possessions fill a 2-storey house, 2 sheds and a playhouse, all of which I also own.  

Really, compared to my contemporaries, this is very normal. In fact when I compare myself to my contemporaries I believe I don’t have enough.  But what if I compared myself to the 80% of the world’s population who live on 20% of the world’s resources (I currently reside with the 20% of the world’s population who consume 80% of the world’s resources).  I am well within the top 10% of the worlds wealthiest.  Can’t be true, but when you consider that half the global population lives on less than £1.29 a day, I really am rich.

Now there’s this growing tension within that won’t go away.  I look at Jesus and see a man who portrayed a simple life which was marked by under-consumption.  Yet, when I look at the same Jesus, I see a man that was also marked by extreme generosity.  Can radical simplicity live in harmony with radical generosity?  The simple (and we all know I love simple) answer is yes, it can.  Jesus did it, lived it, and modelled it.  We have our perfect example to follow.  

He even states it clearly for us:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6:19-21)

What is my treasure?  Is it my possessions, my clothes, my wealth, my time, my family, my God?  If so, then that’s where my heart is.   I heard this not so long ago: ‘If you want to know the condition of your heart before God, then simply look at where your money is going.’  Fortunately, I grew up with a very generous earthly father and I have a ridiculously generous husband, both of whom I have learnt so much about being generous.   I trust my heavenly Father implicitly, so there’s no need to strive for the accumulation of belongings.  He provides.  Always.  When you trust God, He takes you on the most incredible adventure.  It is true when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:11 ‘You will be made rich in every way SO that you can be generous on every occasion’ (emphasis mine!)

Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging a spirit of poverty (although sometimes there’s a lesson in the less).  We belong to the most generous, abundant Father who delights in lavishing us with good gifts.  Sometimes we struggle with this more, feeling that we are not worthy of such attention from the King of Kings.  It can be so mind-blowingly hard to get my head around the truth that the God of the Universe wants to shower me with so many good things, that I find it easier to just obtain them for myself!

 So, here’s my challenge…I want to make room in my life (in my time, in my family, in my home, in the work of my hands, in my spending) to allow God the opportunity to lavish me with His goodness and generosity.   I want to simplify areas in my life so that I can know His greatness more.  Then, I simply want to share it!  As He enriches me in every way, I want to grow in being generous in every way.  After all, we are blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2-3).

It’s easy to quote Bible verses and carry on unchanged.  Not this time.  This time the penny has dropped……out of my hand and into another’s.  Let’s face it, when considering a breath-taking life of generosity, our finances must feature.  Simple. 

So to finish, here is an extract from the book that shook my mind, heart and purse.  The book is called 7 by Jen Hatmaker.  I dare you to read it and not be messed up.

“While it is easy to become paralysed by the world’s suffering and the inequalities created by corruption and greed, we actually hold immense power for change, simply by virtue of our wealth and economic independence.  Because we decide where our money goes.  Never has so much wealth been so concentrated; our prosperity is unprecedented.  If enough of us decided to share, we would unleash a torrent of justice to sweep away disparity, extreme poverty, and hopelessness.

The world is waiting.  Our kids are watching.  Time is wasting.

Are we willing?”

I am.  Are you?