Simplicity

There is something to be said about living simply. This is not something I do well, but it is something I’d like to strive to be better at.

As I look at my life, it is filled with clutter. There is the physical clutter – those random things sitting around my apartment. The desk that has become the catchall for papers and random things that I don’t know what to do with yet. My bookshelves with all of the random knick-knacks. The pantry filled with cans of food from who knows when. Even looking at my car, I found colored pencils that I borrowed from someone in college that never got returned (if they are yours, I’m so sorry!). My trunk is cluttered with stuff that I haven’t touched for months. So. Much. Clutter.

However, I’ve also noticed a lot of clutter that doesn’t take a physical form. Mental clutter takes over my life in many ways. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own minds that we don’t take the time to slow down and focus on one thing instead of many. We are often living our lives with 50 million thoughts rushing through our brains at all times. “What do I need to get done next? What should I have for dinner? I wonder how that one friend from high school is doing… Oh, I should definitely add this to my grocery list.” All these thoughts running through our minds as we are trying to focus on something completely unrelated. We live in a fast-paced society. One that focuses on what is next and how to do as much as we can. Our minds are constantly looking to the next activity or project and how to move through those faster.

This past month, I had the opportunity to focus in on the practice of meditation with a wonderful group of gals. We set out to try to slow down and focus on God. We wanted to listen to Him, look to His Word, and get away from the madness of the world. We wanted to quiet our minds for a while – get rid of that mental clutter – to focus on what God is saying.

Let me tell you, this was so hard!

Here are some of the struggles that came up within the group:

• I lead a busy life, when would I have time for meditation?
• When I try to sit down for some quiet time, the kids are constantly interrupting!
• I don’t even know where to start.
• When I try to quiet my mind, other thoughts end up distracting me.
• We live in a busy society – slowing down does not seem natural!

These are only a few of the many challenges we faced. Focusing on slowing down made us uncomfortable at times. Meditating on God’s Word sometimes brought us to tough realizations. Sometimes those realizations meant an adjustment in our lives.

Despite the challenges, that meditation pointed me to some pretty important findings.

Silence, while uncomfortable at first, is so beneficial. We live in a loud world and when we take the time to be still and focus in on God’s Word, the peace that occurs is so comforting and can help take away some of our daily worries.

Clutter is distracting! The physical clutter was visually distracting, however, the mental clutter was even worse – I have a hard time at focusing on one thing and that made it tough to truly be still. When we take the time to weed out clutter – both physical and mental – listening and focusing become much easier.

God is working in our lives. Sometimes it takes slowing down for a while to truly take note of God’s amazing power and presence. He is doing some incredible things, but when we are living in the constant rush of the world, those things sometimes go unnoticed.

My hope is that through these realizations I can focus more on simplicity. Not only do I want to get rid of some of the physical clutter, but I want to weed through some of that mental clutter that distracts from daily life. I want to focus on truly being still. I want to center in on the important things and not get bogged down by the chaos of life.

We have the joy of living life in the Spirit. We don’t need to be caught in the chaos of the world, as we have the opportunity to set our minds on things above. We get to focus on the simple truth of Christ and His incredible love for us – and, oh, what peace that brings!

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace … You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Romans 8:5-6, 9

-S