Living Simply

That's my New Year's Resolution: to live simply. For me, living simply means taking an honest stock of what I have in my life so I don't pressure myself into doing, buying, or feeling something that I don't need to do, buy, or feel. It means spending less time pining for those things I want and spending more time doing God's work on earth.

As a pastor, it's easy to say that I'm already doing God's work on earth. I'm constantly working for God; that's the definition of the gig. It would be easy enough to leave it there and say I gave at the office and move on with my life. But I don't think God is calling me to do that. I don't think God is calling me to do his work from the pulpit alone. If that were the case, I'd be no different than the person looking for minimal involvment in church (you know them...they come once in a while on Sunday mornings, sit through the Sunday morning service, and are out the door like a bullet as soon as the postlude starts to play). Even as a pastor, I believe that God is calling me to look beyond what I do Sunday mornings and participate in His world in different ways.

Live simply so others can simply live.

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what I can do to make a difference in God's world beyond my work on Sunday mornings. I've read a lot of blogs and parts of books that talk about how to live simply within a reasonable means (or even under our means as we look to be good financial stewards). In the next several blog entries (though not consecutively, if that makes sense), I'm going to talk about different ways that I'm simplifying my life.

Today I want to talk about how I'm simplifying my life environmentally.

I'm doing more to live simply and go greener at the same time. I'm turning the water off more when I brush my teeth or do the dishes. I'm making sure to recycle and print things from the computer more judiciously. If I can save myself from having to print something, I take that route.

There are some "going green" areas that are really a challenge to me, though. First thing in the morning, for example, I love a nice, long, hot shower to wake me up and get the day started. It's part of my wake-up-process. I could definitely take shorter showers and save a ton of water. I don't, though, because I rely heavily on that shower. If I really wanted to, I could take a shower in less than ten minutes. My normal shower is between 15 and 20. Imagine how much water I would save if I just did what I had to do and then turned the water off. So as part of my living more simply in a way that is environmentally friendly, I'm going to pray for God to help me learn how to take shorter showers. I'll set an alarm so I know when my ten minutes is up and each day I'll shorten the time until I'm down to 5 or 7 minutes. If I taper off, so to speak, my hope and prayer is that shorter showers feel more natural and less undesirable.

I also struggle with the bottled water thing, because I'm really not a fan of the way the water tastes in my apartment. I can't change that, but I can add a brita filter to my faucet or get a brita pitcher and hope that it makes a bit of difference. I try to reuse water bottles, too, so I'm not just creating more waste. With that, I also want to try and drink more water. I'm really not a big water drinker, so I'm going to consciously attempt to drink more water in a way that encourages me to be a good steward of this precious resource of the earth.

Living simply means finding ways to live in God's world in a way that makes the world a better place for the people around me. It means decluttering our lives so we have more room for the things that truly matter. We are all in connection with one another, whether we realize it or not. This is the world we've been given to live in, and God calls us to take care of each other and the world around us. We must be good stewards of our neighbors and the earth.

As you look towards the future of 2011 and beyond, I invite you to think about what living simply means for you. What ways can you declutter your life to make more room in your heart for God? What things do you struggle with when it comes to mental and emotional clutter? What ways can you find to live simply that encourage good stewardship of the earth?

God has given us a beautiful and amazing world. He has given us each other to love each other and lift one another up. Let us discover new and creative ways to live simply in the gift of God's creation.

Peace,
Pastor Becki