The Directions are all there...

Have you ever been trying to put something together or operate some new gadget according to the directions you have but keep saying, "well, that's just too simple, I must be missing something". Its almost as if simple directions are too difficult to accept. We expect things to be complicated. Life is like that. Its really quite simple to live a simple life but we expect and almost want it to be complicated, to be some huge undertaking in order for us to make it attractive. Religion is like that. Nothing could be more simple than to live a life with the simple goal of loving God, and loving your fellow man. Of course to do that we need to not be so tied tightly to possessions and self interest. Things get in the way, so doesn't prosperity. You wouldn't think prosperity would be such a trap but it sure can be. The more we have, the more we want and the more we move away from giving of our time and of ourselves. I don't advocate seeking a life of poverty, but I do know it takes a constant awareness to not be caught up in the way of prosperity that takes us away from personal involvement in acts of compassion. It is a fact in this country that the poorer folks give more of a percentage of their income to charity and also give more of their own time for volunteer work. In big fancy churches the sermons are more complicated too. No one wants to step on peoples toes, and the poor minister has to provide entertainment for the masses in order to keep the audience interested. A plain old sermon about living only for God with a simple acapella hymn is boring to the world these days of big screen TV's, and the face paced media world. Simple is equated to boring, except the directions for life are all there in simple words. We keep looking for ways to make the simple more complicated in order to match what we consider our powerful reasoning ability and our thirst for new technology.
The simple truth of the spiritual way is in of itself so simple and from that comes a simple lifestyle. If you want to live a simple life and you are a Christian, live by the very simple words of the book of Matthew. Chapter 6 has just about everything you need to know about how to make life simple for yourselves. Everything you need to motivate you to live simply is in that book. The directions are all there. Simple living is not about the externals, its about the heart, the motives, the desires. We all know stories about some older person, someones grandmother perhaps, that lived a quiet simple life in the city. No fields to plow, no cows to milk, but what a simple godly life they lived ! No complicated daily plan on how to simplify life, just living. A life of prayer, kindness, stability, consistency, dependability, cooking, seeing the needs of others, working steadily with love as the motivator. Perhaps hanging clothes on the line, patching worn clothing, making quilts to be treasured for generations out of worn out garments, not shopping for fancy fabric. Making pie crust from scratch that wins blue ribbons, worn hands that tenderly stroke the brow of a loved one. Kind words, kind deeds, small simple house. The directions for a simple life are all there...simple words found in a very old book