Simplicity

Every other month at Divine Life, we have a class on Tuesday nights. They are a way to dig deeper into certain topics and allow for discussion afterwards. I really enjoy attending and definitely looked forward to the one for April which was on “Creation Care”. I thought it was neat that they had organized this to happen during Earth Month and Jill did a great job of preparing and teaching on our Christian responsibility to the world we live in. It wasn’t just a class on how to recycle or turning the lights off- it went a lot deeper. We learned how our choices here in America affect people in other countries and how to be more aware of what is really going on in front of our eyes here at home. It really got to me when I thought about the fact that our consumer-driven society actually jeopardizes the health, well-being and prosperity of people who don’t even live in this country. I have really become more aware that everything I do has a consequence- good or bad.

Looking back on this month, it is amazing to me to see how much my thinking has changed. I really think that this class, coupled with God working in my life, has opened my eyes to a lot of bad habits that I have. Don’t get me wrong, I love America and out of all the countries I have lived in, it’s my favorite. But I think a lot of the ways I see the world are a result of living in the American culture. I think my biggest “sin”, if you will, is wastefulness. And I think that it stems directly from living in a country where there is plenty of everything, and up until recently plenty of work if you wanted money, etc. And hey, if you don’t have the money to go shopping or redecorate your house (even though it is perfectly fine the way it is), there is always a credit card to fall back on. I don’t blame my country for my mistakes, but I do think that our way of thinking has contributed to my wastefulness.

This class has really shown me that I don’t “need” everything I think I do. As a Christian, my goal shouldn’t be to have the most stuff , dress my child in all name brand clothing or have the latest and greatest stroller system to show off at the playground. Having those things isn’t wrong, but sacrificing what is truly important to have them is. The whole idea behind “creation care” comes down to stewardship. Are we good stewards of what God has given us- financially AND when it comes to the world we live in? Think about it… how many times have you gone through the Sunday paper and seen an advertisement for a sale for something you already have 3 of, yet go out and buy more? “It was on sale! Aubrey will look soooo cute in it! I really need more clothes for work”… etc. The need to “have” is greater than the actual need.

My epiphany came a couple of weeks ago. It was a light bulb moment, and I was completely disgusted with myself when I realized how wasteful I am. I kept a mental note of my habits for a couple of days and found myself throwing paper in the trash (post-it notes are recyclable, too!), throwing milk out before it went bad and buying a new jug, buying clothes or shoes that I already had plenty of (I don’t really need 4 pairs of black pumps, now do I?), and, here I confess my most shameful sin, seeing something growing in the Tupperware in the fridge and instead of cleaning it out, throwing the whole thing in the trash. Talk about lazy. Talk about wasteful! Everything I noticed I was doing that was wasteful was usually traced back to laziness and the thinking that “Tupperware won’t break the bank, so I will just buy more next time I am at the store”.

Seeing my habits in this light made me feel several things: first, I felt shame. As well I should have! Then, I felt anger, mostly at myself for being too lazy to wash something out or take stock of the food that was already in my fridge/pantry before going to the store to buy stuff I already had (I mean really, how many boxes of organic spaghetti noodles does one need? I am certain that I don’t need 4 all at once). After the anger came determination to change, and after that decision I began with the lists. On the computer, so as not to waste any more paper!

1.  turn off the lights. Sounds simple, but it doesn’t always get done at my house
2.  line dry my clothing. This will save me money too because our dryer is about to poop out on us and we have to run it twice for the towels to dry. I picked up some lines and clothespins at Walmart for about $7, and Ryan installed them over the shower. Out of my 5 loads of laundry this weekend, I used the dryer for only one of them. THAT was a good feeling. 
3. re-use Ziploc bags. Wash and sterilize them and quit throwing them in the trash if they don’t have holes in them! 
4. grow my own food. Instead of going to the store and getting veggies that sit in my fridge and go bad because I forget they are there, I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and green beans. I also planted cilantro, basil, mint and thyme. These are all foods and herbs that we eat often, and having to tend the garden and pick the food when they are ripe will keep me aware of what I have and what I need to eat before it goes bad. I planted a TON of green beans and plan to can them and have enough to get us through the winter without having to buy any.
5. Simplify. I probably have enough makeup (with the exception of things that run out like mascara and foundation) to get me to age 35 if I would just use what I have and quit buying the newest thing to come out. Who needs 14 (I’m serious) different shades of brown eye shadow? Apparently, I did.

That last point is, if you will, the point of this post. I think I am a gatherer. If I have the money and see something I want, I buy it. We have lived without credit cards for about 2 years now, and next month will finally pay off the balance of the very last one. That will be such a good feeling! Living within our means has meant sacrifice, but in the long run it has put less stress on our family as well as fostering creativity in our activities.

A couple of weeks ago I was standing in my closet, buried by clothes I never wear and complaining that I didn’t have anything to wear. It was just ridiculous, really. So, this past weekend I had a garage sale. I went through the house and anything that had not been used/worn in the past year went into the garage. My only goal was to make enough money to get a pedicure (it is sandal season, after all!) and to get rid of all that crap that I never used. Let me tell you, it was a lot of work, but it felt SO GREAT to make enough money for my pedicure AND a Zoo Pass for the summer, as well as drop off about 4 garbage bags of perfectly good clothes, toys, books and household items that someone who really needed them would use.

My new quest is for simplicity. I have enough clothes and shoes to wear to work for quite some time. I might get a new item every once in awhile, but it’s not going to be part of my payday ritual anymore to go buy something just because I can. I have enough food growing in my backyard now that I will not have to buy salsa all summer, and if I want a salad I just need to add lettuce to my grocery list. I really believe that simplifying is going to benefit my family in more ways than one. Obviously, by reusing things like Tupperware and Ziploc bags, we will save money. But by reprioritizing what’s really important, it will push us to be creative about our activities, enjoy God’s creation more, and just appreciate what we have more than always yearning for what we don’t have.

I’m sure it won’t always be easy to say no to “stuff”, but I think I’m up for the challenge.

Earth Day Article

I wrote this for an upcoming publication at work, thought I would share. Thanks Jill for the resources!

The Christian’s responsibility in the “Resource Recession”

 “Recession” seems to be the new buzz word these days. Everyone is worried about their 401k’s not having enough money to carry them through retirement. People are losing jobs, cutting coupons, carpooling and doing whatever they can to conserve their resources in these hard economic times. It seemed like it came out of nowhere, but the more research that was done, the more we saw that this crisis had been brewing for a while.

 

We can learn a lot from the economic situation we are in right now and apply it to other areas of life- the most obvious one to me is the world we live in. Whether you believe that climate change is a result of man’s actions toward it or not, there is no denying the fact that we use the earth’s resources as if they will never run out. If we keep at this pace, the world we hand our grandchildren is going to be a big disappointment to them.

 

In the beginning, humans were given dominion over the earth- not domination. The Hebrew meaning of the word “dominion” means “higher on the root of a plant”. Dominion is not unrestricted use of the earth’s resources- it is taking care of that which holds us up. If you destroy the root, you kill the whole plant. Many Christians have gotten away with not caring about the planet because they believe that God will destroy it at the end of all things- but the fact remains that Christ will return, and you have to ask yourself “How am I going to hand this gift of His Creation back to God?”. Yes, He will restore the earth and it will be made new, but that doesn’t take away from our responsibility to care for it. If I applied that thinking to everything, then I would not pay my bills, keep my body healthy, vaccinate my child or come to work. While we are not of this world, we have to live in it, so why not take care of it?

 

It’s interesting to me that the first covenant God made was after the great flood. Genesis 9:8-17 tells us the details of this covenant, and it repeatedly says that God is establishing it with man and every living creature of all flesh. This shows that God has lovingly created this world, that he cared enough to save animals and plants along with man on the ark and that He loves His creation. If I created something- say, a clay pot- I would care about it. I would do what I could to protect it from getting dirty or breaking. How much more would a loving and just God care about the life that He created?

 

We have a Christian responsibility to conserve. Turn off the lights if you are not using them, recycle, don’t print tons of copies of things that you can have electronically, do all your errands at once to reduce your drive, don’t encourage the toxicity of our world by dumping trash where it doesn’t belong and releasing harsh chemicals into the air. Just as we care about our 401k’s and our bank accounts and will do whatever we can to ensure that they will be there in the future, we have a deeper responsibility to the environment. The earth provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetite. We must live Christianly in all aspects of life, not just in church or at work or in relationships with other people. It must permeate everything we are and everything we do. God requires it of us- how can we not bow before him and obey?

Recap of Lent and hope through Easter

Lent has been packed with new beginnings for me. I can’t say that I stuck to my diets, at all. First I decided to give up meat but then realized that I was only eating pasta and bread- not great for all the work I’ve done at the gym since new year’s. So I changed to no carbs. Unfortunately I have no self control so I failed miserably at that as well. One other thing I vowed to do and have been pretty consistent with is prayer. I will admit to anyone that before Lent, I was not a person who prayed, and I still have a LONG way to go. I hate praying out loud because I feel awkward. Ryan always prays such beautiful prayers and I feel like I will never be that eloquent. I also tend to get distracted really easily. I know these are not excuses and becoming a pastor at Divine Life has made me realize that, like it or not, I am in ministry now and I might need to pray ever so often.

 

So, I ordered some Anglican prayer beads off of Etsy, dug out my “Praying with Beads” book and every night before I went to bed, I’d pray my rosary. If you want to know more about the Anglican rosary is, click here. You may think this all sounds very ritualistic and it probably is, but for me, I had to have that discipline to begin with. The book is a great guide because I didn’t quite know where to start. I started off just reading the prayers for each week (The prayer beads are made up of twenty-eight beads divided into four groups of seven called weeks. In the Judeo-Christian tradition the number seven represents spiritual perfection and completion. Between each week is a single bead, called a cruciform bead as the four beads form a cross. The invitatory bead between the cross and the wheel of beads brings the total to thirty-three, the number of years in Jesus’ earthly life) and when I got to the end I’d go to bed. But something happened along the way- I decided to dedicate the last week to personal prayers. I found myself praying for Aubrey, for my dad’s job, for my marriage, for my co-workers… and I realized that this praying thing is more like conversation than anything. It has been wonderful to come to the realization that God is here with me, that he CARES, that he loves me and that I have access to that.

 

My diet failed miserably, but Lent has held more growth for me this year than ever before. It was more than “meatless Fridays”. I have been broken and in that brokenness, understood that I have not taken God seriously. It’s a strange balance between realizing how Holy and Awesome He is and feeling Him embrace and love me. I want to be reverent towards Him while, at the same time, running into His arms as His child. I have made some decisions regarding how I will express this reverence in my worship as well as letting go of some inhibitions that were in place for my own comfort zone, instead of true honor to God.

 

I feel like I have only scratched the surface on these revelations. I also feel like they are so childlike, and I can’t believe it’s taken me 27 years to understand the importance of prayer and study. Becoming a pastor has pushed me to prepare every week for Wednesday night, to pay more attention on Sunday nights, to be open to conversations with people and to actually seek God instead of just letting “church” happen to me. I am excited for what is to come- if this is but a shadow, I can hardly contain the anticipation of what I will learn and become in the days ahead.

 

Easter is always a special time of year for me. Like Christmas, it always drives home the significance of what Christ has done for us. It boggles the mind when I sit down and reflect on it. On good Friday, I feel the pain of what Jesus’ mother must have felt as he went through the Stations of the Cross. On Holy Saturday I reflect on the despair that must have been felt by those who loved him and had placed all of their hopes for Messiah in Him. And on Easter Sunday, well, I feel the joy and hope that comes from knowing that death did not win!

 

This past Sunday the worship team introduced me to this song. It is simple but powerful. The chorus doesn’t have a lot of words, but the ones it contains really drive home the truth of this season- HE LOVES US! Why else would the Creator of the Universe come into this earth in a most undignified and unusual way, to live an ordinary life followed by 3 years of ministry, and then a horrific and humiliating death? The only answer is “He loves us, oh, how he loves us”! If I can understand one thing, it would be this. Life might not be what I dreamed it to be. Bad things may happen, good things may happen. But one thing is always constant and that is what Christ has done for not only me, but the whole world.

 

Lent may be over, but my newfound disciplines will continue the work that God has started in my life through it. Easter will come and go with its lacy baby dresses and Easter baskets, but the truth of my salvation will always be there. I’ll end with a quote I found today:

 

“Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there.” –Clarence W. Hall

 

HE IS RISEN!