Still, I've learned that maintaining peace and simplicity in my home and life requires effort on my part. I got out of whack during the holidays, and it didn't take long for things to spiral downward. Fortunately, I woke up before things got too out of control. Several weeks with no schedule or sense of true purpose made me realize that I wanted my structured, simple life back! I marvel that I lived any other way.
I'm not foolish enough to believe that I have obtained a perfectly simple, peaceful life. I have not, nor will I ever. I may have started the year expecting to arrive at the final destination in one year, but that certainly wasn't realistic. If nothing else, I learned that the journey will be life-long.
As my new bloggy friend, Keri Wyatt Kent, says so aptly in Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life
:Simplicity is not a method. At its heart, simplicity is a relationship with God that is focused on Him and is growing, changing, evolving.
You can organize and downscale all you want, but if your heart isn't focused on Jesus, you won't live a simple life.
I did a lot of downsizing and organizing this year. I knew I had to start there before I could hope to find simplicity. Intentionally focusing my time and energy in this manner was necessary for a short period...yet the journey to simplicity is a marathon, not a sprint.
According to my theme verse, it's the same for peace:
I will listen [with expectancy] to what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints (those who are in right standing with Him)--but let them not turn again to [self-confident] folly.~Psalm 85:8 (AMP)
In order to have peace, I've got to be in right standing with the Lord. That's a continual process, a constant work. There's no way I won't return to my self-confident folly if I'm not depending oh Him.
Which brings me to 2009.
To be continued...
(P.S. - If you're curious about some of the lessons I learned this year, click on the labels to read more posts in these topics.)
3 comments:
I feel as though I have walked the path with you a bit. It is hard to believe that we can read another person's blog for over a year and feel like you know them and yet have never met them in person.
I love that verse in Psalm 85. Thanks for the timely reminder. And I have missed you too!
I have loved seeing this journey to simplicity through your eyes! I think realizing that we'll never have it all figured out is part of the growing. If we did, we'd become self-sufficient, wouldn't we? But to leave it as a process, rather than an end, we understand that the Lord is always at work in us, and that we must constantly lean upon Him for our peace. Thanks for sharing so much of your life with us through this blog. It is truly a blessing!
Wow! So glad to have found your blog. Sounds like we're on the same page. I've spent the last two years (after reading Breathe!) simplifying and cutting back. My word for last year was Listen and my word for this year is Peace. Sounds like our paths are similar.
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