okay so i'm taking a break for some thoughts on living simple...
so i'm a married man now... and a while back we made a decision to live more simple... this is a lot harder than it sounds... but we are making little steps...
we don't have cable television... and as most of you know, i am a tv junkie so this hurts a little... but it's a good hurt... if that makes any sense... ah big brother!
we only have 1 car. we both have full time jobs but sara's job requires her to go to many job sites on any given day... this means i get to ride my little scooter to work... or walk... which thankfully when we were looking for a place to live, we had this in mind... and i live less than 1/2 mile from where i work... (starbucks in martinsville)...
i struggle with having too many belongings... i want to get rid of the majority of my belongings... but it's hard to give things up.... ya know? plus there is always the cultural/human urge to want things... and given that i am from an extremely wealthy country this is even more of a predicament...
we resist going out to eat and try to cook at home as much as possible... but this is hard too... fast food is well... fast and easy! and it's something we struggle with... but there is something nice about cooking your own food... plus it's much healthier if done correctly...
there is beauty in simplicity... and i love it!
and we are not doing these things for economical reasons... we have more money now than we have ever had... we just believe that Jesus lived a simple life and that is what we should too...
Jesus didn't even have a house... maybe eventually we will get there ;)
eventually we want to get into some sort of communal living situation... (i.e. the first church)... we just believe that life was meant to be shared... and living simply speaks so much to the people we want to be...
"All the believers were one in heart and mind.
No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
There were no needy persons among them.
For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."
Acts 4:32-35
6 comments:
good stuff, once again.
i echo your sentiments for simplicity. part of it is the simple fact that things can distract us and keep us from thinking clearly. but mostly, it comes down to money for me. why buy cable when you can buy someone a meal...or several meals a month? our money could be used for so much good if we would just stop spending it all on ourselves!
thanks man. hope you're enjoying the married life!!!
if we can ever sell our stupid house, we should all move in together. mandy and i have been trying to figure out how to live more simply as well. fortunately, god has put us in a financial situation where we don't have much choice. i echo your frustrations as well.
word.
communal living and living simply is awesome and hard and rewarding and frustrating and ahhh sometimes i love it and sometimes i hate it.
the living out of a backpack thing and seeing as how i've put a limit on my team of only carrying one bag means i have to abide by the same guidelines so every time i buy something i pretty much have to get rid of something. so that's capped my buying.
except, i still buy excessive amounts of coffee, but that's my clutch for having some sort of comfort in my life away from home.
oh well.
i agree with Brad. we should all totally move in with each other.
Very good, Man. I want to live a more simple life, but it is sooo hard. I feel like, at times, I've changed internally (if you don't change from the inside out, getting rid of "stuff" won't really make a difference), but then when I sit down to really start purging, I just can't do it. This tells me that my simplicity issues run way deeper than I realize.
From a Christian standpoint, living in America can be a blessing and a curse. It's wonderful having abundant resources if we are using them for the right reasons, but most often we take advantage of our resources and just accumulate more and more stuff to clutter our lives.
Brad and I are definitely working toward a simpler lifestyle (mostly out of necessity at this point) and we know we will get there eventually, but it hurts in the process.
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