The Beauty of Simplicity

Life is full of seasons so it's no surprise that it seems like I am midst of a simplification season.

After our first short-term missions trip as a married couple and Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, we quickly decided it was time to trade in one mortgage for another. So we put our house up for a sale a little over a year ago and prayed for a buyer. It definitely wasn't the easiest process in the world and we were near our end when a young couple walked in and fell in love with the place last April. A month later we were moving into an older home with a considerably less monthly mortagage payment.

Now my wife is enveloped in her first family garage sale, and it seems we're committed being that the ad was placed in the paper yesterday. The nice element about our first garage sale is that my wife has a retail background so it's going to be one of the nicer garage sales Des Moines has ever seen. I'm kind of amazed at how quickly the garage filled up with stuff for sale. The funds from the garage sale will go towards some new patio furniture she has her eye on at Target. I'm hoping the extra proceeds can go towards a digital SLR camera, but that's just me.

In preparing for the big garage sale, my wife decided to conduct some research by hitting the local garage sales in our area. She happened upon some friends of ours from church, who are selling their house in order to simplify their lifestyle. Being that Brad is the newly crowned missions director at our church, it's no surprise what God is doing in his life.

Another friend of mine is really simplifying her life by going on a four-year journey into the missions world down in Kansas City as she studies at the International House of Prayer (IHOP.org). God's really been working on her to live a VERY humble life, a very simplified life, when utter and total dependence on Him alone. She's going to need to rely on Him to provide for her financially, which He's already doing to equip her for her trip. And she's going to need to cling to Him as God molds and shapes her into a new creation. While you may look at her and say, "Dang, I can't imagine someone being any more humble." God says, "More." To quote my friend, "I'm going to spend the next four years of my life eating carpet," as she lives a fasted, face-down lifestyle.

I bumped into another friend from church yesterday that has Haiti on his heart. I actually chuckled from the irony of simplification when he said, "I'm getting a word from the Lord that I should sell all of my stuff and move to Haiti into full-time missions work for two years." Go Tim, go!

And here we sat together as a family on Saturday night encouraging my sister-in-law to sell all of her possessions (so we wouldn't have to move them to California) as she heads off to graduate school in August.

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Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

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The Beauty of Simplicity by Telecast

It's the beauty of simplicity
That brings me down to my knees
I'll praise You for eternity
And Lord I love you
because you, you first loved me

It's the beauty of simplicity
that fills me with eternity
I tasted your divinity
and Lord I love you
Because you, you first loved me

and all God's people say
we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
and we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
we love you

It's the beauty of simplicity
That brings me down to my knees
I'll praise you for eternity
And Lord I love you
Because you, you first loved...

You gave yourself away
Just that I could stay
You took my place and love
And knows that I could stay
But you are holy
And you alone
Deserve my praise

And all God's people say
we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
and we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
and we, we love you
we love you Lord
and we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
we love you
And we, we love you
we love you Lord
we love you
we love you