Very few of our people have said to themselves: we will live at a level of joyful, wartime simplicity and use the rest of what we earn to alleviate misery. But surely that is what Jesus wants. I do not see how we can read the New Testament, then look at two billion unevangelized people, and still build another barn for ourselves [a reference to Luke 12:13-21]. We can only justify the exorbitance of our lifestyle by ignoring the lostness of the unreached and the misery of the poor.
In August, by the help of God I'm going to be doing a joyful austerity/simplicity experiment. Don't read this as anything really spiritual; it's more like a sincere experiment and learning lesson. Here's what I'm going to try to do.
I'm going to attempt to live for thirty days as close to bare bones and needs only as I can get. That'll look like one helping of healthy food, no hot showers(only luke-warm ones lasting only as long as it takes to suds and rinse), no Starbucks or Wawas coffee, no in-between meal snacks, no entertainment except what seems needed for family and relational benefit, no condiments on my food, or butter or half-and-half, paper backs instead of hard covers (if any books at all), no Ritas, no meals out (unless ministry or relationship required), etc.
I'm aiming for as close to wartime austerity/simplicity as I can get--just to see what it's like, and to see what I learn in the process! You see: the problem seems to be that unless and until we actually do without we never really learn what we can do without!
And besides, I've got a feeling that I'll learn some new things about the sufficiency of God and grace, as well as how I might be able to give a little more to alleviate the misery of a fallen world rather than build another barn.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDoing without the extra food is the one that will get me...for sure. We had a guest speaker not too long ago from Burma/Myanmar. They have rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner over there. A special treat is having something over it...a very small amount of something. Here, it is the other way around...we have a lot of something over a little bit of rice. We would never dream of having the same thing for every meal, let alone the same meal multiple days of the week. It totally takes, "There's nothing to eat in this house" to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteHow do we walk this out when we already have more than enough? Do we just start passing out our stuff? Do we get rid of things that we think we'll need in order to allow God to provide when the need arises again?
Two examples...1- We're a young family...planning on having more kids...not expecting yet, but we've saved all of the kids clothes in anticipation. People still give us clothes for the kids and we sort and incorporate the sizes into various storage containers. But this is a major investment of time and energy. Is it really necessary? Should we just pass things along as the kids outgrow them and trust that God will provide again?
Second example...reading material. As a young family that is homeschooling, we tend to collect books at yard sales that we've seen in homeschooling catalogs. My oldest child is six, and I have books all the way through high school level. I keep trying to develop a Biblical philosophy of reading...we have a lot of classics like Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Moby Dick...things that Verita's Press and Sonlight would recommend. But I keep wondering if I really want my kids spending their time reading all of this stuff. Much of it will do little (if anything) to help them grow spiritually (without direct guidance). I really want them to read things that inspire them and help them to grow spiritually. Now I've probably spent under $1 each on all of these books that I've collected here and there, but will it be wise for my kids to invest their time reading all of this stuff? Is it wise for me to invest time in storing all of this stuff?
(For more preliminary thoughts on reading, see this blog post: http://hankinsd.blogspot.com/2008/07/developing-biblical-philosophy-of.html)
Anyway, just interested in your thoughts. Thanks for the thought-provoking posts!
I was similarly challenged recently by that chapter in Piper's book. Looking forward to reading about your experiment. In fact, I'm thinking of doing it myself!
ReplyDelete