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Our group has been digging in at the nursing home.  I’ve been surprisingly reluctant to document it here.  I’ve been holding some things pretty close to my heart.  We have a couple of ladies who are open to us and letting us in their lives.  It is not pretty or perfect, but it is real.  I’m grateful to join many other people, churches, and groups in reaching out to those who are shut in.

It’s got me thinking about simplicity more.  And making my life count.  We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.  Therefore, making today count is important.

Last time I wrote about simplicity of heart, I hinted that Foster had ideas – once the internal nature of simplicity is firmly rooted in our thinking and lives – for going deeper in outward simplicity.  I thought I’d document some here, as a way of encouragement and keeping the ideas in front of me.

The first area that might be quite obvious was to talk through a need for planned spending.  A budget.  He reminds readers that “Forty years of gainful employment times and annual income of $30,000 would amount to $1.2 million for which we are responsible.  And that doesn’t include any increase in salary.  How dare we even think of handling such a tremendous resource without careful records.” (p.141)

I know.  He doesn’t mince words.  But put that way, it is compelling.  We were talking with friends about how long it takes to find a budget that works and is practical.  Then how hard it is to keep that budget.  It’s taken a long time in our marriage, and good advice from wise people, but we’ve found a system that is working right now.  My favorite point of Foster’s is to “put the giving of money to Christ and His Kingdom in a different financial frame of mind from other budget items.  What I mean is this: most budget items we hope to hold down, but our desire is to see giving increase as much as possible.”

Don’t you love that perspective?  Yes, that releases resources to meet needs.  But just as important, it keeps our hearts from greed.  It constantly challenges our motives in earning.  Others are blessed, but we are saved from ourselves.

A fun challenge he suggested was when you find you have a need for something, to ask God to bring it without automatically going out to buy it.  It could be a light-hearted exercise, watching God provide for needs.  It is very, very easy for Him to provide for our material needs.  He urges us to lay down the crushing burden of trying to get ahead and provide for ourselves.  (Matt 6)  Of course, we know this doesn’t mean we don’t work.  “No, we work, but we work in faith, not in the anxious concern of distrust.  We make provision as it seems right and good (just as the birds do), but what comes to us is not so much the result of our labor as it is the gracious gift of God.”

We have seen over and over God provide for our needs.  I’m sure you have, too.  I go through periods where I forget to take notice, but when I do notice…man, am I overwhelmed.

And the fun part is we get to be used by Him to help provide for others’ needs.  And the earth will appreciate any efforts of simplicity of life.  “Our little planet simply cannot sustain the gluttonous consumption of the wealthy West…If the rest of the world were to attempt to live on our level of consumption, it is projected that all known world resources of petroleum, tin, zinc, natural gas, lead, copper, tungsten, gold, and mercury would be exhausted in ten years…our planet simply cannot support the overload were the starving masses raised to our level of consumption.”

What does that do to your heart?  Part of my heart shrinks back.  I don’t know what to do with that quote while looking at my electric-powered washing machine, gas-powered car, and air conditioned home.  Do you know?  I don’t know.  I know God has put us smack in the middle of wealthy America in the 21st century and that the life we need to live in this culture is helped by these conveniences.  And that being motivated by guilt never produces good fruit.  I also have learned through experience there’s a way to not take these things for granted or be addicted to conveniences & comfort in general.  I wonder if learning to hold things with an open hand can be a journey with God that varies greatly between individuals and families.

What I know for sure is we can’t do this alone.  We can’t do much of the life in Christ alone.  Or we aren’t supposed to.  He made us to be in community, and we can help each other figure out what it looks like to go deeper or when we’re moving toward greed.  Yes, it’s a personal topic.  But I so hope we have people who can see into our lives.  All the way in.  I’m so grateful to be part of a church that takes small group community seriously.

This is a lot of words.  And I didn’t even get to lots of his thought-provoking suggestions.  I’m going to try to take smaller chunks and write more often.  What it does to my own heart when I put things down in (mostly) my own words is hard to explain.  Just know it helps me to do this.  I hope it encourages you, too.