Simplicity pt.2
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NEW WAY TO BE HUMAN
SIMPLICITY
PART 2
(Prayer) Father, help us as we get into some super practical stuff today that could possibly change us to be more
spiritually healthy, and more available for your Kingdom.
Your Son, Jesus is the master teacher… using practical things all the time to teach us.
Father, would the Holy Spirit, help us now, remind us of Your son Jesus, His words, His compassion and the way
he went about living to change the world for eternity.
YWAM STORY
When I graduated high school, I instinctively chose to do Discipleship Training School in Oahu, Hawaii, at an
“all-inclusive” missionary base called YWAM, an acronym for Youth With A Mission.
For 6 months I packed a massive roller bag with all my clothes and belongings (filled mostly with my
collection of trucker hats), my skateboard (and no joke) a flight case full of my DJ gear, a set of
turntables, mixer and vinyl’s…
Now, for me, all of what I just mentioned were the necessities of life.
Oh to be 18 again.
YET, my baggage became even more lean… when we travelled on our outreach to Thailand - we could
only bring what we could fit inside a hiking backpack!
All my possessions… 1 backpack.
Here’s a picture of me teaching English. Little did they know that I had to re-take Senior English just the year
before.
*I’m the white guy sitting down in the front.
In Thailand, we received the same meal, 3x daily, rice and eggs, and some sort of “mystery meat”.
Every day we’d wake up having little to no idea where we were, or where we were going…
Furthermore, no one spoke English… so we had to survive on the little Thai we knew and/or our
translator.
On top of that, we had sparse communication with our family back home.
Keep in mind, this was before smart phones, which meant, if we were lucky, the town we
were in had an internet café where we could write emails using AOL “you’ve got mail” to
communicate with our family.
Yes. Even I pre-date Google.
Basically. We had our bibles, each other… and the Holy Spirit.
That was it.
For 3 months.
Some of you would go mad.
I’ll admit… I went a little crazy… started making friends with a brood baby chickens.
Here’s disposable camera picture of me a week before coming home.
All in all, it was a great trip. We were on the front lines of ministry- Watching Jesus move and heal, and save…
and do miracles.
Unforgettable. Life changing. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had not said “yes” to this trip.
But now, 20 years later… something else entirely is cause for consideration…
I remember 2 things that stood out upon my re-entry into the United States.
1.
I was filled to brim with the Holy Spirit. Overflowing. Living day-to-day felt weightless… like floating
through the air, ZERO anxiety, pure joy in serving others.
2. I had NO IDEA who had won the Super Bowl.
Ha!
Like… What!?! “How is that even possible” ?
The atrocity. The horror, the cruelty!
No Fox Sports… No ESPN, no Stephen A. and First Take, no Sports Illustrated… no Americans for that
matter, for thousands of miles!
Can you imagine?
Sounds like a nightmare to some of us… but on serious note… in return… I got this…
A peace of mind
The ability to live in the moment… free from distractions…
Off the grid. Free from the news feed…
Freedom to love and be loved by the people I was with in the room…
I got to experience lightness (metaphorically speaking) carrying only the burden of the day with me
wherever I went.
Now, many of you have had a similar experience I’m sure, whether it was a week in Mexico on
mission, no running water, no showers, beans and rice… etc.
… or maybe just a vacation where the Airlines lost your luggage… so you had to survive with one
outfit…
And by the end of your trip, I’m guessing you thought to yourself… “Wow, maybe I don’t need so
much stuff to be happy.”
Are you tracking with me? How many of you have thought that?
“I can live happy with less”
Okay, so I’m not the only one.
Subsequently… we all share the next experience…
perhaps this is also familiar…? Listen…
You get home from the mission trip, you drink running water out of the faucet for first time in weeks… you take a
hot shower that morning… you do a little afternoon shopping on Amazon… do a little fast food in the drive
through again… respond to a political post on social media…
and the next thing you know, you’re binge watching Yellowstone online, eating ice-cream out of the tub,
playing video games, endlessly scrolling the feed, staying up way too late… sleeping in past your
morning prayer time, and then rushing in to office, or school or wherever…
No? Just me?
So what’s going on?
Well, as it turns out… we as North Americans are pretty lousy disciples of Jesus. We don’t easily receive the
invitation into the simple life – what Jesus called “Life to the fullest.”
And in Matthew 6…
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the
pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Specifically, that invitation of Jesus is this, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke (teaching) upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke (my way) is easy and my burden is light.”
(Matt.11:28)
Jesus teaches us to live “freely and lightly.”
As an example, Jesus made sure to inject a healthy dose of margin into his life. As Brett taught a few
weeks back, Margin is “the space between our load and our limits”.
… between the things we must get done.. like, work, laundry, eating, etc…
And the things that burn us out… working overtime, attached to our smart phones, saying “yes” to all the
social events, and rushing to put out fires everywhere we go…
Margin is flexibility in your schedule… having the energy and resources to be available to serve Jesus and
others.
And the name for this is SIMPLICITY… or the discipline of Simplicity.
And that is what we’re going to talk about today.
Simpllicity pt. 2. - Because I couldn’t fit this all into my teaching a few months back. As it turns out, the irony of
simplicity is that it’s not easy.
Quick review…
QUICK REVIEW
What are the disciplines?
If you weren’t with us, we’ve been going through 12+ of the more popular, agreed upon disciplines of
Jesus followers from the past 2 thousands years.
All disciplines (or practices, or spiritual formations) - are based on the life and teachings of Jesus.
They are an attempt to follow the Way of Jesus, to copy the details of his day-to-day life…
To be His disciple, or in modern language… his apprentice or student.
What is simplicity?
Simplicity, more recently, has been called Minimalism. This is what a number of bloggers and writers have been
calling a secularized version of the ancient practice updated for the wealthy Western world.
“A lifestyle where people intentionally seek to live with only the things they need” - Joshua Becker
Dallas Willard would call it frugality: to abstain from using money or goods at our disposal in ways that
merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamor, or luxury.
- Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
Now… real talk.
We all want this.
Secular and Religious alike.
We all get it.
It makes sense.
Yet, why is it so elusive?
Feels like, 1 step forward… 2 steps back.
Like… no matter how hard we try, we keep getting sucked back into the ways of this world… busyness,
hurry, anxiety, distractions, hoarding, upgrading, buying, consumption, covetousness, climbing the
corporate latter, power grabs, and so on…
Simplicity doesn’t happen overnight… it’s a long obedience in the same direction. It’s like what MD PHD Leo M.
Marvin prescribed in his best selling book, “Baby Steps”.
What About Bob?
You remember the idea- you’re not gonna conquer or accomplish hard things over night… things like sailing
across the pacific ocean… you got take baby steps… just try getting on the boat at first… and then,
Remember Bob… eventually you’ll sail…
That’s interesting…
Dylan can you zoom in there on that picture…
Mmm… I thought so.
What About Bob? Pff… What About Brett?
I wonder what he’s doing right now? This is how imagine him.
…
Practicing Simplicity is like taking baby steps… in all seriousness, you gotta start with something small.
More on that in a second.
My wife Monica and I had been on this journey for almost a decade now… making very intentional changes in
our life to move towards (what foster calls) “the freedom of simplicity”.
If you’ve talked to us, you know, we’re supper vocal about it. Probably annoying. Sorry.
But we’re just that excited about it. It’s been revolutionary to our souls.
- It’ literally why we live and work here in Redmond instead of the city.
- It’s literally why we’re here at Redeemer’s Church and not at my friends really cool trendy church in
Bend.
Just a few months back, a musician/artist friend of mine from San Diego texted me this…
“give me the secrets” haha!
He was sick of hearing us talk about it, or hopefully, he noticed a difference in our life… so he finally
asked me.. give me the secrets.
And I love that he used the word secrets.
It’s literally what the Apostle Paul called simplicity: “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is
to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. - Philippians 4:12
Now, you should note… I’m no expert, Monica and I are beginners… we’re green, we’re a bunch of newbs…
we’re not the Apostle Paul or Jesus for that matter…
but I just want to share what I did with my friend in that text message… the 3 steps I gave him.
SECRETS
Secret #1
More is MORE! Not better.
Mark Twain perceptively noted, “civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.”
Today we something like, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress
people we don't like.”
We think we need more stuff and we think we can add more stuff in to our schedules.
The gospel of America unfortunately works directly against simplicity.
We’ve all heard this message… in a nutshell: the more you have the happier you will be.
… this is the lie, that we will get our meaning in life by what we consume.
IT’S NOT TRUE!
Right now, there’s a running ad by AT&T trying to convince us that M O R E I S B E T T E R
3G, 4G, 5G, mmWave High-Band 5G…
I want to counter that statement with this,
More is NOT better… (that’s bad math)…. More is just… more.
Say that with me. More is just ____!
More reasons to worry,
more panic,
more stress,
more time at the office,
more debt,
more maintenance and cleaning,
more migraines rushing from one thing to the next.
More things that fill our mind with the bottomless “to do” list.
The solution to our problem of daily becoming overwhelmed, exhausted, burdened and busy, isn’t MORE.
… AND it isn’t re-organizing (as much as I love Mah-ree Condo).
Maire Condo anyone? The Japanese organization consultant… on Netflix.
We don’t’ need to re-organize…
No! We need a garage sale for our soul.
We need to declutter our lives. Be that stuff OR time commitments… less is more.
Simplicity is learning to have less.
Jesus said it this way, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world (to have more), yet forfeit their soul?
- Mark 8:36
Part of this secret… is embracing our limitations. Our God-complex. Or Savior-complex… trying to do it all.
And I have great news for you… are you ready?
You
Can’t
Do
It
All
We're not God. We're human. Time, space, one place at a time… all that pesky non-omnipresent stuff.
We forget that we’re only human. Surrounded by our technological devices, we forget that we don’t have
limitless bandwidth and the infinite ability to multitask.
Did you know, every time you check your newsfeed or Twitter timeline, it takes a whopping 23 minutes
and 15 seconds to regain attention and focus.
Conclusion: We stink at multi-tasking.
We have limitations. Lots of them. The limitations include…
•
Our bodies. We can't like Luke Skywalker be in two places at the same time.
•
Our minds. We can only use so much of our brain at once. And we don't get to hack Someone else’s
brain. As much as it was fun to watch we can't be Bradley Cooper in limitless, or Mel Gibson in “what
women want”. Our minds are limited.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Our giftings
Our personalities and emotional wiring,
Our families of origin,
Our socioeconomic origins,
Our education and careers,
Our seasons of life and their responsibilities,
Our 80 or so years of life,
God's call on our lives is also limited. You don’t get to be the apostle John and the apostle Peter.
We are limited.
But guess what, this is actually really healthy, and simplifying. You don’t have to live up to all these things that
are beyond your capabilities…
Pete Scazzero says “we find God's will for our lives in our limitations.”
Look, I don’t lament my failing basketball career… I don’t. In 8th grade, I hung up the sneakers.
Why, because it helped me focus on what I was good at, what God had equipped me to do for the rest of
my life.
In the language of Henry Thoreau, we have to “live deliberately”
The apostle Paul would tell us to “look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise, making the best
use of the time, because the days are evil.”
You can’t do it all. Less is more. Create margin in your schedule, get rid of the clutter…
More… is just more.
Look, you don’t have to watch every season of Yellowstone. You don’t even have to watch the Superbowl. You
won’t regret that when you die.
If you’re looking to concentrate on work or spend quality time with loved ones, setting clear limits is essential.
Which brings us to secret #2
Fair warning- If there’s any toddlers, you might cover their ears… are you ready? Secret #2 is…
Learn how to say NO
Or in other words, prioritize your values.
Simplicity is “The intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that
distracts us from them” - The Minimalist
“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere
with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” -Linda Breen Pierce
For fun, take a look at Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule…
You’ll see the bigger blocks that we can all relate with… work from 8a-5p reading and lunch in between… 10p-4a
sleep. And of course, time for leisure: music, conversation, and “diversion”
Notice the question at the beginning of each day… “What good shall I do this day?”
And the resolution at the evening… “What good have I done today?”
Sleep, Work, food and fun… nothing wrong with any of that… but for Benjamin Franklin, doing good was the thing
he valued most. He prioritized it.
This is how you keep simplicity at the forefront of your time.
Figure out what you value most. Say yes to that, and no to everything else.
Stephen Covey said that “we achieve inner peace when our schedule is aligned with our values. The key is not
to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
Jesus would say something like, “your treasure is where your heart is”.
Or, seek FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness,
Have you ever sat down and wrote out a “time-log”, to find out where your time is going every week?
It’s an eye opener.
It revealed for me, just how much time I spent online, social media shopping, random hangs with friends, playing
video games… instead of doing the things I actually wanted to do, like read, hone in my craft/ talent, or spend
time with the people I cared about most.
Look…
It’s easy to tell people that you're busy when you're spending upwards of 20 hours a week organizing
your fantasy football team, or catching up on reality TV shows.
I’d say we’re actually more distracted than we are busy.
Listen! There are less hours in our day then we expect. There are less days in the week, less weeks in a year.
YOU MUST prioritize what matter most.
The great commandment in scripture; the Shema, to love the lord with all your heart, soul, and YOUR
STRENGTH!
Strength – in Hebrew translates kind of funny. In English it’s muchness – meaning all your time, energy, money
and possessions.
I wonder just how much life and peace we could enjoy if we, in fact, prioritized Jesus’ Kingdom with all of
our muchness.
Prioritizing is found in the word “no”.
Gosh. Today, it might as well be a dirty word.
Here’s what I mean by all of this…
Julia Hobsbawm, this comes from theThe Simplicity Principle…
If you’re looking to concentrate on work or spend quality time with loved ones, setting clear limits is
essential. …we need to set clear personal boundaries to give our lives focus. We need to learn the art of
saying no. As the famous investor Warren Buffet says, “The difference between successful people and
really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
Despite being extraordinarily wealthy, Buffet has simplified his life to its bare essentials. He prioritizes
family and friends, lives frugally, and focuses on his chief talent: investing.
He refuses a great many invitations to keep himself on track. And another thing – he doesn’t own a
smartphone or even keep a computer on his desk.
All of this simplicity isn’t much use if you don’t have a clear purpose, though. To find this, you need to
listen closely to yourself. Ask yourself, “What really matters to me?” Your answer could be simple – like
seeing more of your family. Or it could be finishing a novel or finally getting fit. Whatever it is, zoom in on
that. Then, when you do make space in your life, you’ll fill your time well.
So, my values look like this… just a basic list…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Obeying God, Jesus, Holy Spirit
Family – wife, son, parents, brothers and sister, etc.
Community - friends, church, mentors
Work – ministry and music
Exercise and Leisure, and “diversion”
…
And as you might expect, my week has certain things built into it… to accomplish these Values!
I’ll show it to you….
this is over simplified… and remember that I’m a “house-husband” – a recovering musician / volunteer
pastor, and amateur soccer player…
My list won’t look like yours.
*Morning ritual “quite time” every day. Coffee, bible, meditation, prayer followed by 30min workout.
Friday work and fasting until 5p begin 24 hour sabbath (mainly family stuff, but also friends)
Saturday 5p then prep Sunday
Sunday church. Meeting with friends. Date night
Monday – Watch John Fox, Prayer, meetings, Young Life
Tuesday – Work, intentional family time, downtime reading
Wednesday – work, play Hockey, errands, dinner at Parents house
Thursday – work on house stuff, errands, laundry, try to meet with neighbors and friends
This is my limit. My load, and margin are nearly spent.
I like to think of it this way- the assumption that we’re already overcommitted. I don’t have a lot of margin for
anything else.
Therefore, anytime I’m asked to do something outside of my routine, I think, “saying yes to this, means saying no
to something or someone else.”
EXAMPLE: A while back, a friend of mine asked me if I’d like to help with his coffee business.
I love coffee.
I’m a coffee snob.
I would love to do it.
So I thought about…
Well, saying yes to coffee would me saying no to the other things I value more than coffee.
… then I made the decision.
“no”.
And that’s me, seeing my limitations, prioritizing my values. It’s tough sometimes…
“if there were 8 days a week, I’d love to do it”.
And that’s true. There’s a reason I’m not running a coffee shop or roasting coffee… as much as I love it…
it’s because it doesn’t break into my top values.
Moving on…
#1 More is MORE! Not better.
know your limits
#2 Learn how to say no
Prioritize your values
And now, Secret #3
Don’t just Take My Advice.
As in, I want to give my resources… the stuff I read, or watched or heard helping me practice simplicity.
Here’s my bibliography for today’s teaching.
As mentioned, John Mark Comer’s Ruthless Elimination of Hurry is a great one-stop-shop for simplicity. Much of
it is a re-packaging of these…
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•
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Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster
Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scezzero
Domestic Monastery, by Ronald Rolheiser, observing how to implement the monastic life in 2022 for
house-husbands and the like…
These next three are mainstream, not Christian authors, but you’ll find that they are professionals of discipline,
and how to create priorities around your highest values.
•
•
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Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport
Daily Rituals, by Mason Curry
Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
o
Tim is a Master of efficiency and impact. He interviews…
*A lot of these have podcast that accompany them.
Then finally…
A Netflix documentary about the important things called: Minimalism.
ENDING
Go ahead and close your bibles and notes. Turn off your phones.
We’re going to end here. The band can come back up. Let’s STAND.
We’ll put all 3 secrets to Simplicity on the screen
More is MORE.
Learn to say NO.
Don’t just take my advice.
Super practical. I’m praying you’ll all give at least one of these a shot.
“I will only experience in my life the thing I know in my mind when I live it out in my body.”
Let’s go ahead and close our eyes, open our hands…
I want to suggest that during this time of response, you begin to formulate what it is that is keeping you
from experience the freedom of simplicity. That on the drive home, with a trusted friend, or your spouse, or with
your kids, you begin the conversation about what you can try cutting out, saying “no” to, in order to say “yes” to
the thing you value most.
What are you going to do (Or do without?) this week?
What changes are you going to make?
Jesus wants to invite you and I into this freedom of simplicity.
Think about Jesus with me….
He knew when to work, when to rest
He had energy to help others…
He knew how to manage His relationships, He didn’t run after every person or opportunity.
He was able to act in a moments notice…
He was also able to delay, to say “no” to the tyranny to the urgent.
In the most ironic way, Jesus didn’t have a “savior complex”, instead, he lived freely, lightly, and in full
obedience to His fathers will, moment to moment.
- There were even “fires”, so to speak, that He didn’t put out… but left for His followers to do.
BUT what I’m in awe of, regarding Jesus, is that He knew when His “time had come” and was ready
to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Jesus, knew his purpose – the will of God for His life.
He also lived in the moment – carried by the Holy Spirit to do and act in every situation.
Jesus wants to invite you into this freedom of simplicity.