Well... Does simple and free sound like a stretch for you? Does the title "Calm in the Chaos" or "Simpler and Freer, Finding God's Design for Me(er) work more realistically for you in the state of life for you right now??
At last "Break Away" we talked about what makes life complicated. (EASY QUESTION, eh?) Some mentioned expectations, schedules, kids. I am sure we all have a list ... errands, pressure to please, dinner planning, overcommitment, clutter, juggling responsibilities...
So how do we live simply? What does this mean in our day to day life?
First of all... the truth is that some of us are thinking... "Man. If you knew my life. My life is way past simple. It is so complicated that day to day life just pales in comparison to the mountain or pit or dessert I face." I totally get that. Life IS hard. Often heart wrenching and painful. But I want to encourage you.. I've seen God move mountains... and not necessarily the ones I thought he'd move. I can see many situations in life where God has moved on my behalf... Godinstances where he set up and orchestrated details to take care of me. Sometimes he changes our circumstances and sometimes he fixes our heart.
God took me through a difficult relationship and instead of fixing the circumstances, he took the mountain of pain and hurt in my early twenties and carried me beyond it. In my thirties, he took me through my fears when our baby was ill and brought me to a place of peace and trust... trully delivering me from my fears. Cancer, illness, health problems, relationship problems, financial problems,loss of loved ones, grief....there can be a lot to deal with. I honestly understand if you are saying the place you are in is not simple. Life honestly isn't easy. But I want to tell you that if your heart is breaking.. go to God. He is the heart healer. Tell Him what you are thinking. He is real and He really does awesome stuff. And remember... if you need to talk any of us are here to talk.. just send us an email or give us a nudge or a note.
But here is the fact.. even in the storms we have to live with the details of day to day life, so here is where we will begin. But this is another fact...sometimes our mountain or pit or desert is EXACTLY there in day to day life... just the drudgery or rushing or hormones or PMS or menopause or seasons of life. I honestly have to tell you... I do not have it all together..my life is just not plain simple and free every minute of every day. It kind of ultimately goes against our nature as we want to be in control and it goes against what life is like here on this earth!
But check this out! Simplicity and Freedom are gifts God wants to give us amidst what is going on! Here is a paraphrase of Jesus words in Matthew 11:28-30... It is on the right side of this page... READ IT! Is that not good news? God wants to show us how to live freely and lightly!!!
So how do we live more simply and freely and lightly? How do we find calm in the chaos of our life?
Over the next few weeks we will be looking at an adapted and simplified version of the ideas from Joanne Heim's book "Living Simply" and her ABC's of Living Simply. See--- we are simplifying things already!! So let's begin Simpler and Freer.. Lets Begin with ABC er!
