The
grassroots of Plain Living
Plain living is becoming more and more popular with our American
emphasis on a healthy, eco-friendly lifestyle.
Throughout history though, plain living has had quite a few
definitions, often depending upon the individuals who practiced it.
Today, I’m just going to touch on the idea of plain living from
the Christian point of view.
Plain living is the outward expression of an inward change.
This inward change is what’s called a simple life, resulting from
repentance. What is a simple
life? Well, it’s not about
sitting in an Adirondack chair on the porch, sipping a latte while
watching the sun set with friends.
It’s about agenda, goals and dreams.
It’s about how many irons you have in the fire, how many marbles
you’re trying to manage on a constantly moving table. We’re a people of
multiple agenda and those line items are always driven by personal need.
We need money, so we go to work. We
need a break, so we plan for weekends and vacations.
We need security in our old age, so we develop investment
portfolios. Left to
ourselves our old nature will pursue the fulfillment of our needs
through all kinds of relationships and circumstances, in work or play.
Our need for security, pleasure, purpose and value are strong and
insatiable. They demand
management and an ever-growing investment. This expanding agenda creates
chaos, where line items neutralize each other’s effect.
A simple life occurs when personal agenda has been reduced to one
thing: ‘Loving the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul and body’ This simple truth frees a
person to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.
A simple life has no competing agenda.
Interestingly enough, it’s possible to say that God is my
priority, all the while continuing to pursue personal needs through the
pattern of this world.
This happens without the slightest plan, it happens by instinct.
It’s an impulse of our old nature.
Unfortunately his invitation to join him can simply become just
another line item on a constantly growing and changing agenda.
It’s possible to just add him to your frantic complexity by
misunderstanding what he’s after.
Even when we understand that a simple life comes from a
simplified agenda, our old nature resists.
Our old nature is completely vested in the
pattern of this world; trying
to meet internal needs through the managing of external resources,
circumstances and relationships.
God has commanded us to deliberately distance ourselves from the
pattern of this world, because
the world’s system creates a frantic confusion.
But more than chaos, the pattern
of this world is actually idolatry.
It’s the practice of giving credibility to something that can’t
meet our needs.
At times our needs seem to
be the problem, but they’re not. They’re simply homing-beacons designed
to point us to him. Sin then
steps in when we cast about for our own answers through instinctual
habits, family conditioning and cultural definitions of fulfillment.
When we attempt these pursuits we need many options and juggling
those options create chaos. A
simple life breaks this cycle, beginning at the point of repentance.
Here, one starts to experience actual fulfillment, agenda
shrivels and the door to a new lifestyle opens.
Here is where plain living comes into the picture.
Plain living is the lifestyle that grows from the ground of a
simple life.
We no longer have to find satisfaction in careers, we no longer
have to accumulate novelties to perk us up nor do we have to impress
ourselves and/or others with our accomplishments.
We can simply live a quiet life with him, looking out for the
needs of others with the power that he provides.
Our needs present the opportunity to experience his internal
fulfillment without the changing of the external circumstances.
Our prayer for help within,
rather than for fixing things around us, changes our character. This is
the will of God.
There are many nuances to
plain living, but it’s no use considering them until you understand the
ground from which they grow.
Authentic plain living grows from a simple life, flowing from a single
agenda. If this hasn’t
occurred, then the practice of plain living simply becomes another line
item within our multiple agenda, causing more stress.
But once we’ve come to repentance, chaos begins to dissipate and
a whole new world opens up.