Week #4: A rule for Indulgence

We all have things that we like to indulge in.  For some it may be books.  For some it may be shoes.  For some it may be tools.  It could be anything, really. These are not trinkets or collectibles that we attempt to keep for lasting value – or to hand down to future generations.  No, these are the things that our personal preferences and interests lead us to purchase over and over and over again. 

When we come across a new or untried item of our indulgence, we tell ourselves that we ‘must have it.'  This, of course, is a lie, but it sounds nice.  We gobble up the item without a thought, telling ourselves that our current array of similar objects would not be complete without this new addition.   We grasp for these things on instinct.  If we do happen to think about whether or not we ‘need’ the item, we often justify the purchase under the rhetoric of it being the ‘newest’, or being ‘on sale’.  Sometimes we say that we ‘deserve’ our indulgence.

Having interests are never bad, nor is wanting to have products and items that relate to said interests.  If books, for example, bring you pleasure, then you should buy books.  It is not wrong or sinful to own such things.

That being said, we get into a dangerous place when our indulgences begin to take over our lives. When we begin to amass these things, without a thought about the amount of money we are spending, or the amount of use we will get from it, we are allowing material things to have control over us.  We are buying into that toxic slogan that says we will never be satisfied until we have ‘more.’

The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, advises that ‘those who buy something’ should live as if ‘it was not theirs to keep; and those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. (1^st Cor. 7:30-31).  Paul’s point isn't about not using or owning the things of the world.  Rather, his point is about making sure that our relationship with the material side of our lives is always subject to the demands of our faith.  When we become engrossed in what we purchase, or the need to purchase the newest trinket or toy, then our focus is ever so subtlety being drawn away from Christ.  It is as if our life is being lived for the amassing of our indulgence.

So how do we deal with our indulgences in a Christ-like, and Christ-honouring, way?  One of the easiest ways is to develop a ‘rule’ of how we will approach these things.  For example, one of my personal indulgences is action movies.  I find watching these types of movies  a nice, mindless, source of entertainment, particularly when I feel the need to unwind or relax.  Because of this, I have collected a large number of DVD’s that sit on the shelf in my basement.  It is easy for me to find a movie that I do not own, spend the appropriate money, and take it home with me.

But here’s the thing, I have several movies on my shelf that are still in the wrapper!  I have never watched them – nor have I seen fit to unwrap them from their casing.  They have simply sat on my shelf for months.  Furthermore, as time goes on, I end up adding more and more unwrapped, unwatched, movies to my collection.  This is what it means to be owned by our possessions – to be engrossed in them, to use Paul’s term.   

I’m not alone in this.  I know others who live out the same reality with books, or shoes, or the latest tool.  The particularity of the indulgence doesn't really matter, we all live out the same reality.  Yet developing a rule for how we relate to our indulgence stops the cycle from continuing to occur.  My rule is that I will not buy another movie until I have watched all the ‘unwrapped’ movies on my shelf.  This rule stops me from mindless purchases, and it causes me to examine my motives for picking up a new indulgence whenever I feel the urge rise within me.  

A Rule for our excesses is not there to limit or restrict us.  Far from it! It actually leads us into deeper grace.  When we step away from our filling the latest craving of our indulgence, we are free to uncover the true satisfaction that comes from the Presence of Christ. We consciously avoid being engrossed in the things of the world in order to more fully live in the Kingdom of God.  And the joy that is produced in exercising our single-hearted focus in such a manner far outweighs any temporary pleasures we may have received by being engrossed by the newest indulgence.

Week #3: Practice the Discipline of being Last

The Discipline of Simplicity is not just about how we think about the Kingdom of God, or how we approach things like worship and bible-study. It informs the very manner in which we live. The Kingdom of God, and thus our single-hearted focus on that Kingdom, reverses the ways and priorities of the kingdom of this world. The Good news is both radical and shocking for this very reason. In the book of Acts, Paul and his co-labourers were charged with “turning the world upside down.’ (17:1-9) Of course, the radicalness of the message did not originate with early church. Jesus himself continually turned the contemporary wisdom of the day on its head.

An example of this is Jesus’ often quoted statement in Matthew chapter 20. After telling a parable in which those hired for one hour of work are paid the exact amount as those hired for a full day, Jesus offers his ‘zinger’. “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” (vs.16). This is repeated in the Gospel of Luke where the very same statement is found after a discussion regarding the ins and outs of salvation. (Luke 13:30)

Have you ever thought about what Jesus was speaking to? What does it mean to be ‘last’ in the kingdom of this world? What does it mean to shun the values and priorities of the world around us for the purpose of finding ourselves ‘first’ in the kingdom of heaven? These reflections should go beyond the mere theoretical theologizing. In both Matthew and Luke, Jesus links the discipline of being last with practical matters of how we live our lives. It is about work, relationships, and life. The discipline of being last, then, must be rooted in the fabric of our everyday lives.

Like the contemporary society of Jesus’ own day, our world places value and worth on the backs of success and merit. If you do more you should earn more. Working harder than others should, in the long run, garner you more respect, honour, and social clout. Furthermore, the world around us tells us that our success and worth is seen in opposition to the success and merit of other people. Our value is not measured by our own ability or effort, but by the merits of other people.

It seems Life is more like ‘Survivor’ than we may realize. We all strive to be the head of the tribe; we wish to be the one who makes the decisions, the one who calls the shots. What is more, the kingdom of the world is built on the premises that there can be only one ‘winner.’ The goal of life, as depicted through commerce, advertising, and pop culture in general, is not so much keeping up with the Jones’, but having the Jones’ keep up with you. We buy the newest cell phone, tablet, or the latest techno-gizmo, not because we think that it will improve our lives, but because we want to be listed among those selected few who were ‘first’ to own a popular device. We keep our schedules busy because we associate busyness with importance – which has the added benefit of conveying the message that others should feel honoured that we have ‘fit’ them into our demanding life.

Attempting to be ‘last’ unlocks us from the constant struggle to get our own way, and the strive to be seen and recognized. We take the focus off of our selves and truly turn our attention to God’s holy presence.

How can you attempt to be ‘last’ as you live out your life this week? Here are a few suggestions.

Instead of attempting to pick the shortest check-out line, and then getting frustrated that you are being unduly delayed when it doesn’t move as fast as it ‘should’, pick the longest. Rejoice in the waiting. Put down the drive that says your need to move through line quickly is more important than someone else’s need to take their time. Recognize when you begin to overly criticize the people around you and ask Jesus to help you to see them in divine love.

If it is not a physical hardship for you, park your car at the back of a parking lot. This may seem overly simple but this stops us from the vain attempt to find the most convenient spot. If you do pass a spot close to front, try to see it not as a space that you ‘deserve’ but as one you can lovingly offer to someone else.

Enter conversations with the desire to spend more time listening to others than speaking your own mind. In her book ‘Abundant Simplicity’ Jan Johnson references a story told by N.T. Wright, in which the host of a party told his guests ‘Remember, the most interesting person in the room is the one you are sitting next to.’ Take time to learn about others and listen to their stories. Try not to interrupt them as they speak, and avoid offering own experiences as a commentary on theirs.

Practicing the discipline of being last is not about a negative look at our own worth or ability. This isn’t self-hatred or self-depreciation. The purpose is to shine a light upon the ways that our desire to be recognized, or to establish our own self-mastery, may cast a shadow over our desire for God’s kingdom. We also see the subtle ways in which we perceive our needs/wants as more important than the needs or wants of other people. This helps remain attentive to the influence our faith makes in our living, and allows us to remain focused on God’s kingdom.

Week #2 - Pick a Memory Verse

The heart of simplicity is immersion in a life lived with God.  We voluntarily step away from all that distracts us from Kingdom living in order to keep the presence of God at the forefront of our lives.  We seek God's kingdom; we meditate on His word; we look for the guidance and direction of the Spirit.  There is no better tool for helping us develop this single-hearted focus than the constant meditative reading of Holy Scripture. 

One of the easiest ways to integrate the words of God into the living of our lives is the practice of weekly memory verses.  It is a shame that the practice so often promoted in Sunday Schools is left behind as we grow older.  Maybe this is why the modern day Christian has an increasing unfamiliarity with the Bible.  The Bible is not a book that can be read only once and then put back on the shelf.  Our relationship with the Biblical text must be a living and active relationship – just as the Bible itself is the living and active word of God.  To this end, Scripture consistently reminds us of the need to keep returning to God’s word.  For example, Joshua charges Israel with the words “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8), and the Psalmist declares ‘I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.’ (Psalm 119:16).

The practice of choosing a weekly memory verse helps us to sit with the biblical text.  The purpose is not the mere ability to recall chapter and verse, but the bringing of the verse deep into our lives.  We seek to implant the word within.  The verse becomes foundational for us and becomes the very soil to which the Christian life blossoms.  This is true single-hearted focus upon God.

Picking a memory verse does not have to be difficult.  Simply start with one of your favourite verses.  Or, you can pick a verse from one of the readings heard during Sunday worship.  It may take a while to remember the exact wording of the verse.  That’s ok.  But once you have the verse clear in mind, then allow that verse to sit in your mind as you go through the tasks of the day.   You may, in any given moment, reflect on particular parts of the verse.  The point is to allow the verse to speak to you.  As you rehearse the verse, remember it as God’s voice speaking into your life.  In moments when you feel distracted, or tempted to step outside of this mindfulness, simply recall the verse and allow it to take you back to the state of holy attentiveness.

Remember, these are weekly memory verses.  It is a dangerous habit to merely read a verse of scripture once and believe that we have heard all it has to say.  The word of God is dynamic and has the power to touch various different areas of our lives –  if we allow it to do so.  Sitting with a memory verse for an entire week  has the benefit of slowing us down.  We do not force our memorization, nor rush any ‘insights’ we receive the particular verse.  Rather, we give the verse time to simmer within, developing its truth in subtler and stronger ways.

St. Paul reminds us to be ‘transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ (Romans 12:2)  By keeping a verse of scripture in our minds amid a week of activity and demands we become more conscious of the presence of God.  The rehearsal of the memory verse opens us up to the voice of God and the nudges of the Spirit.  As time goes on, that which may have seemed hard at the beginning, becomes easier. The recitation of the memory verse becomes an expression of our internal focus upon God’s kingdom.

Week #1 - Participate in Church

We most like to think of simplicity as the reduction of things. It is the call to reduce our possessions, our demands, our activities.  Given this, the suggestion that we should cultivate habitual church attendance as a means of 'simplifying' our lives may seem strange.  Isn't this just adding one more duty onto an already full schedule?  How can church attendance lead us into a life of simplicity?

If we are to take seriously the basic understanding that simplicity is 'the single hearted focus upon God and his Kingdom', then we must make sure that we are immersed in the Christian community.  When Jesus spoke his words about seeking first the kingdom of God, he did not have in mind mere navel-gazing by a group of individuals alone in a field.  Jesus called the disciples together to this single hearted seeking.  He was speaking about what it meant to live as a disciple of Jesus, a life that naturally involved community.  The discipline of simplicity, as a part of what it means to live the Christian life, is formed in the community of faith.  This is the reason why the book of Hebrews calls us to 'not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.' (Hebrews 10:25)  It is in the context of the authentic Christian community that we are encouraged in the living out of our faith.  We are upheld, supported, loved, challenged, and encouraged.  Furthermore, it is in community that we learn what it means to turn our hearts to Jesus, to be open to the pulses and rhythms of His Spirit, to feel His presence, and to hear His word.  We simply cannot fully learn these things in isolation.

The cultivation of simplicity, then, requires that we participate in the life of the Christian community.  We find a community of faith, a church, and enter into its life and ministry.  This doesn’t mean that we must take up positions of leadership or responsibility – in fact if Church attendance has never been a habitual part of your life, then I would urge otherwise.  Still,  making church attendance – involvement in the community of faith – a habit for our lives is about turning our lives away from worldly distractions.  We choose Sabbath. We choose worship.  We choose to focus ourselves on Christ and His Kingdom.

Church attendance is related to simplicity because developing the internal habit of being open to Jesus starts with developing the external habit of structuring our week around the participation in the worship of our faith community. This becomes an external sign of our willingness to ‘seek first the kingdom of God.’

Choosing Simplicity - Volume 2

When I first started to think about the discipline of simplicity, I decided to see what our good friend 'Google' had to say about it.  Not surprisingly, there are copious websites dedicated to 'simplifying your life' or 'living simply.'  However, as I combed through these sites and suggestions, a discontent emerged within me. Most of these sites only dealt with the external practices of simplicity.  They advise one to 'consider a smaller house'; or 'eat more organic foods,' or 'get a better organizational system'; or 'consider a smaller car.'  It made it sound as if simplicity was nothing more than a matter of deciding what to do with the stuff we have.  It also seemed very consumption based.  While shunning the notion of consumption and excess, most of the suggestions advised you on what purchases you should make.  This is seen very clearly through the magazine 'Real Simple.'  This magazine is essentially a collection of advertisements.  The message? If you want to simplify your life, these are the things to buy.

But what of the internal side of simplicity?  How do we live out simplicity as a spiritual practice, as a way in which we connect in deeper ways to our Lord?

Simplicity must be, at its heart, a devotional attitude. It is to be a focusing of our wills upon life immersed in the presence of God. The Renovare Institute defines the discipline of simplicity as ‘A single-hearted focus upon God, which results in an outward lifestyle.’ Simplicity is about where our hearts are directed, the ‘treasure’ in which they reside. Thus, rather than being narrowly defined as ‘having less stuff’, the internal discipline of simplicity is about being attentive to the pulses and rhythms of God as they occur in and around us. In his book, A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly writes: “There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.” It is, as Kelly describes it, living from a ‘divine center.’

Of course, the internal discipline of simplicity must be evidenced in our outwardlife.This is the other half of the above definition. Simplicity must be evidenced in our outward lifestyles. In his book, The Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster writes “We delude ourselves if we think we can possess the inner reality of simplicity without its having a profound effect upon the way we live.” Take out the language of simplicity, and put in Jesus’ language of seeking the kingdom, and we see the essence of what this internal discipline is about. “We delude ourselves if we think we can possess the inner reality of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness without it having a profound effect upon the way we live.”

Seeking God’s kingdom first and foremost, what we could call a single-hearted focus upon God, does influence the things we buy, the things we eat, and how we approach the material aspects of our lives. Yet it does so out of an internal place of freedom, not law-keeping. We become free from the constant demand to consume. We step outside the ‘rat race’—a race that surrounds us with the message that our life, identity, and worth is controlled by the stuff we accumulate. As someone commented on my previous post, “even if you win the rat-race, you are still a rat!”

In removing ourselves from an internal focus upon the constantly shifting messages and products of the world around us, we enter the freedom to live our lives in tandem with the Spirit of God. This allows us to feel the exhilarating freedom of give things away; yet just as equally we are free to own things. The point is we are not possessed by our possessions or the feeling that we must strive for the latest updates, products, or fashions. This is wonderfully described in Proverbs 30:8: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say “Who is The Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of The Lord.”

The fact is, through the internal discipline of simplicity, our relationship with material possessions changes. We see the goodness and usefulness of things we own or purchase, but no longer are not compelled to purchase things in order to fulfill to a sense of importance, or perfection. Mass-market slogans such as ‘brand loyalty,’ ‘impression management,’ and ‘dress-for-success’ are seen for what they are—cultural nooses that do nothing but enslave us. The kingdom of God calls us to a different way of living.

There is this tension in Simplicity. Simplicity is both about our inward life and our outward life—and you can’t actually have one without the other. This single-hearted focus on the Kingdom of God becomes the centre, the heartbeat the ‘one thing’ we seek after in our lives We simply live for the sole purpose of daily interactions with our Lord. We become free to have possession, but not be owned by them, because all of life is rooted in our relationship with Jesus. Simplicity allows us to be free from having to constantly strive to prove ourselves, to clamour for attention, to worry about how others view us, because we are comfortable leaving ourselves, our future, our reputation, and our career in the hands of God. We do not rehearse the past failures, nor worry about future successes, because we dynamically enter into the present moment, knowing this is the place called has called us to, and the person God has called us to be.

I don’t know about you, but that is a freedom in which I would like to live.

Choosing Simplicity

We live in a world of constant noise and distraction. There is always something to tear us away from what we focus on in any given moment. Images flash before us, ever changing what we are thinking about or reflecting on. Music provides an endless soundtrack to life; we find it in malls, in banks, in hospital waiting rooms. The frenetic pulses of the world we live in, like a migraine that won’t end, eventually takes it’s toll on us. According to a 2011 paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, It only takes a person 4 seconds become uncomfortable with a silence in conversation. Personally, I have noticed the strangest urge within me. Every time I sit at my desk with my Bible open, in preparation for sermon work or Bible study, a small voice goes off in my brain demanding that I check the current feed on Facebook. I wonder if you have ever struggled with a similar thing? Even if we are unaware of it, we are used to something else always going on, demanding our time and our attention. We live in a world where slow, methodical, focus is a detriment and multitasking is a virtue. Because of this we say things like ‘I wish there were more hours in the day’, ‘If I only had a few more hands’ or ‘please stop the world I’d like to get off.’ We feel exhausted and tired because of the ceaseless pace of the world we live in.

Is this there a way to break out of this type of life? Can we combat the overexposure of sights and sounds, the barrage of messages highlighting self-indulgence, and that internal sense of being overwhelmed? Can Jesus lead us into a different way of living?

In her book, Abundant Simplicity, Jan Johnson describes the message of Jesus as a radical denunciation of a life lived ‘in bold print’. Jesus points us to a life of unhurried grace. He calls us to not worry over “what we shall eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Pagans run around after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ I have grown up with this verse. I have sung it as a hymn in churches many, many times. Yet I never really thought about what that verse points us to. What does it mean to seek first God’s kingdom in our lives? How do we go about this? And how does living for or in the kingdom of God, differ from living for or in the kingdom of this world?

Have you ever seen the movie City Slickers—starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance? In this movie, Palance plays an old rugged cowboy named Curly, while Crystal acts the young mid-life crisis-baring city person. Crystal’s character is in awe of Curly because, as he says ‘your life makes sense’. In the central scene of the movie Curly, with cigarette dangling from his mouth says to the burden-baring Crystal, “You city folk are all the same. You spend 50 weeks tying knots in your rope and then think two weeks up here will untangle them for you. None of you get it. Do you know what the secret of life is. This. (Curly holds up his finger) One thing. Just one thing.’ Of course, here, Hollywood takes a turn and it is suggested that everyone must find their one thing, but until then, what Palance talks about is very much like the type of life Jesus is pointing us to.

Looking back at what Jesus says in Matthew 6, it seems that Jesus makes a stark difference between two fundamentally opposed manners of living. There is the way of seeking the kingdom, first and foremost in our lives; and there is the way of ‘The Pagans’. The way of the kingdom is unhurried, focused, and diligent. The way of the ‘Pagans’—the way of the world—is to run around in an intolerable scramble trying to achieve that which we are worried about yet can never fully receive.

The way of seeking the Kingdom is different, because the rule of God in our lives becomes the one thing that our lives are directed toward. Jesus tells parable after parable about this very thing; it is a person searching for a rare pearl, a woman searching for a lost coin, a shepherd searching for a lost sheep; a father searching for his lost son. The kingdom of God is to be the sole focus that redefines all of life. Unlike life according to the world—telling us we are to flit about in ten thousand directions at once, chasing everything and finding nothing; spending week after week ‘tying knots in our rope’—a simple, kingdom focused life arranges all actions, duties, and tasks around one unified and definitive principle and goal—life in the kingdom of God; life as a disciple of Jesus.

It seems to me that to living out this singular, simple, kingdom-focus will have dramatic effects in how we live our lives. But maybe that’s what Jesus wants. Our life in the kingdom isn’t to be so internal that even we forget what it means! The kingdom of God should effect how we interact with the world around us. It should change how we speak, how and what we purchase, how we serve one another.

Over the next little while I will be exploring what this singular, simple, kingdom-focused life will mean, both to my inner heart of devotion and faith, and also to the various outward way that we engage in the world around us. I invite you to take this journey with me, and even offer your own insights and suggestions.

What is one outward thing you can do to ‘simply’ your life? Remember ‘Simplicity’ should be defined as a single-hearted focus on Jesus and his Kingdom.