Radical Change

I am searching for radical change.  It doesn’t come easily, but I have had glimpses of the potential rewards of this change in my life.  I want my home to exude the peace that I am finding in God, I want it to reflect the calm beauty that I see in God’s creation around me.  I want my home to reflect the purity, clarity and wholeness that can only be found in a life centered in God.  It may sound strange, but I begin to understand why in the Zen tradition of Buddhism, there is a spare-ness, a focus on a single beautiful object.  It helps to clear the mind, prepare it for a singular focus.  While I don’t follow or put faith in Buddhism, I begin to see how this can also benefit our Christian meditation.  How can we focus on God when our mind is continuously bombarded and clouded by the chaos, over-abundance and clutter that surrounds us.  It detracts us from the handiwork of God, from being able to see and experience him through his creation, from hearing his “still, small voice”. 

Henry David Thoreau wrote, 

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.  I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”  

(italics are my emphasis, not Thoreau’s)

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, 

“Be not the slave of your own past—plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.”

Jesus told the rich young ruler, 

"You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21)

Jesus also taught the following, 

“Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

For a long time, I have been convicted of the need to live with fewer possessions.  There was a time when I looked to possessions as providing comfort and stability in my life.  But surely and steadily, God has been teaching me that contentment in life does not come from things.

As I said earlier, I am looking for radical change.  I not only want to change my surroundings, but change the way I live life.  
~ I want to suck the marrow out of life.  
~ I want to dive deep, swim far.  
~ I want to live, pared down to the essentials.  
~ I want to retreat from our consumerist and debt ridden society.  
~ I want to live sparely, serenely, contentedly, focused on relationship with my maker.  
~ I want to paint pictures that share this deep and abiding peace that God brings, that share his still small voice and make it known.  
~ I want to spin and knit things that share the warmth and protection that God gives.
~ I want to stitch things that share the deep joy that faith in God brings  
~ As a nurse, I want to be an instrument in the hand of God that shares the deep love that he has for us.  
~ As a parent, I want to share my experience of life in Christ with my children, in hopes that it will encourage and uplift each of them spiritually.  

And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 

~ Matthew 19: 23, 26