Looking back on fifteen days of writing daily blogs about the role of simplicity in my life has me thinking. How am I qualified to teach this lesson and how do I want to narrow all of this down to a thirty minute lesson. Members of our Christian Education Committee would say I am qualified because I was there at the meeting... because I was the one who volunteered. My parents would say because that is how I grew up, not having to have the brand name clothes...never had to have a fancy car. My children would likely say that I was qualified because I preach it the way I cook it. Simple, simple, simple.
My lovely wife Ashley takes care of the morning parental duties, getting everyone dressed, fed and off too school after I have already left in the morning. She totes them back and forth to school and then to their grandparent's houses after school. This leaves her very little time to actually go to work. So, I try to take the afternoons and some of the evenings so that she can actually get some work finished. I honestly do not know how working mothers get it all done in a day.
I do my best to get their homework done, get them fed and off to sports, choir or church. I have my particular quick and easy favorites that I can cook for them for dinner. Taco night, burger night, tuna melts, etc. But the story that will stick with them forever was the time their dad tried to make homemade soup.
It looked easy enough. I'd seen Ashley make soup from scratch often. That lady can make a fine bowl of anything. So, I gave it a shot. I added water, noodles and some mixed veggies.
What's was missing? Oh, the kids could tell you. What was missing was... flavor. No salt? No pepper? No herb mixture? Nope. Just hadn't dawned on me. Still to this day, they tell stories of the "water soup" that I made them eat. We often encourage the kids to say something nice about the dinner each night, as a courteous way to thank the person who took the time to prepare it. Ashley gets all kinds of noises, thanks and praise for her meal. That night, I just got questions.
"Dad, what is this?, What were you trying to make? Did Mom leave us anything else to eat?"
Reader, don't get upset about their manners. It was truly terrible soup.
My fantastic wife would say that I am qualified for the simple fact that I am able to wash the dishes. Just wash the dishes. She says she admires the fact that I can cut off certain creative ubstructions in my daily life and just focus on the task at hand. I have learned much from the incredible things which she accomplishes in a day. At first, she just thought I was a deep thinker, a philosopher. After nineteen years, I think she is ready to call my bluff. Stay silent long enough and people will think you are up to something. :)
Writing these thoughts down has helped me to grow and develop in a short time. It certainly has helped my weed out my thoughts to offer a precise lesson on simplicity. Presenting my ideas here has given me a bit more confidence that I can present a precise and understandable presentation of what the Gospel has to offer us regarding the spiritual discipline of simplicity.
I'm thinking a lot about the outward expressions of simplicity today, as noted in Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.
For today, I am just pondering aloud. I certainly would not consider my life bland, in any way. Just my cooking.
I look for ways to be a part of the change I want to see in my community. I constantly seek to learn more, to find adventures in life and to reach personal growth as a husband, father, son and servant.
Simple living DOES NOT have to be like my "water soup." Flavorless, uninteresting... The more and more that I read, I find that simplicity means striving daily to make wise choices, choices which free up time for instruction, rest and growth.
Rich Mullins said on life...
“So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.”
Now, that's writing with flavor.
For this blog, Thirty Simple Days, I have written about the importance of organization, about reading books which feed the soul and the mind and about the importance of saying "no" sometimes. Presenting music videos and testimony from many of my heroes has made this blog more interactive and a more enjoyable experience. But more importantly, I have been challenged by the opportunity to open up my thoughts and to reach out to others with my exposed heart.
I never expected to share the things which I have shared so far, and certainly anyone who knows me knows that I don't share freely in public. I have found others, more wiser than me, who are sharing their thoughts on the subject of spiritual growth. Here is one for example, a blogger who writes "The Invitation of a Lifetime." This particular blog in the series says it all so much more eloquantly: http://shakenfree.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/the-soul-dissed-satisfied/.
However, I continue to add the salt... to seek for understanding and a better way to express myself.
One song that always comes to mind about spiritual growth is Margaret Backer's The Hunger Stays...
The Hunger Stays
"Hunger stays, hunger stays
I've been thinking about what I've been through
All the good times, all the bad
And anywhere in between the two
There runs a common thread
Some call it a condition
A hidden chasm that will never fill up
A constant thirst for Your presence
A longing for Your love
The hunger stays, I keep on reaching
The hunger stays, I keep on seeking
The hunger stays through the blessing
Through the bleeding, the hunger stays
I've seen Your rivers in my heart
Seen Your miracles time after time
And when I think I can't take anymore
I see there's so much more to find
The hunger stays, I keep on reaching
The hunger stays, I keep on seeking
The hunger stays through the blessing
Through the bleeding, the hunger stays
I will seek till I can seek no more
I won't give up until I find You Lord
'Cause a hungry man does not pick and choose
He just goes where there's bread
And he keeps pressing through
The hunger stays, I keep on reaching
The hunger stays, I keep on seeking
The hunger stays through the blessing
Through the bleeding, the hunger stays"
Link of the day...
http://www.margaretbecker.com/ Margaret Becker's web page
Quote of the day...
"Faith is not a notion, but a real strong essential hunger, an attracting or magnetic desire of Christ, which as it proceeds from a seed of the divine nature in us, so it attracts and unites with its like." William Law
Bible verse of the day...
“He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world.”- 1 Samuel 2:8-8
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