Los Alamos Church of Christ
Drawing Closer To God
Submitting to Simplicity
Last week I shared with you my metaphor about being on a cruise ship. Tanya and I went on a cruise several years ago, and most mornings we would wake up in a different location. We would get off the boat and experience a different place. One time we were in a bustling city and the next we were on a quiet beach. Some were challenging, others were restful. We had different experiences at each destination. The trip was great.
That is what I want this year in my sermons. I want us to pretend we are on this spiritual cruise ship and each week we are going to be at a different exotic location. Each week we will get off the boat and experience God in a different way. My goal is for us to draw closer to God in a variety of different ways. My challenge to us… is to get off the boat.
It is easy to stay where we are comfortable. The cruise ship is nice. We are safe. We like the people we are with; mostly. We enjoy our worship together; mostly. We enjoy our routines; mostly. We like the way we do things; mostly. Our lives are nice; mostly. Perhaps, "mostly" is the answer. We have this nagging feeling, that if we could take a chance and get off the boat, we might experience God. That is what I am advocating this year; that we allow that nagging "mostly" to motivate us to get off the boat and experience God in some radical places.
This morning, as we wake on our cruise ship, we
are in a place called Simplicity.
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As we walk down the gang plank onto the island of Simplicity we immediately think to ourselves, "This is really foreign. We are not in Los Alamos anymore, Toto."
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As we go into Simplicity, we hear a song in the background; "'Tis a gift to be simple". When the song ends, we notice the quiet. There aren't any hurry noises. No cars screeching by having to pass each other before they get to the next red-light. No screaming motorcycles showing how loud their motors can be. There is no whining of emergency vehicles making their way to some disaster. There is no anxious chatter of people talking too fast. We listen and there are no squawking cell phones interrupting everything with their creative ringtones. There is no buzz of busyness in Simplicity. There is a different rhythm to the place.
Then we notice the people. There is something different about the people. There is an unusual look in their eyes. It is not the "Eye of the Tiger". There is no anxious determination. Instead, openness is in each face. Their demeanor asks, "You want to chat? I've got time." There is a leisure tasting of each moment. There is awareness that the present is really all there is. The pace, although flowing, is not rushed. There is no urgency. There is no complexity.
As we talk to the people of complexity, there is simple speech. No one is talking in guarded phrases. No one is attempting to deceive or trick us. No one is attempting to sell us anything, or manipulate us, or get us to sign up for something we would rather not do. There is only pleasant conversation, simple questions; straight answers. We realize people don't have hidden agendas. They simply communicate.
We notice a restaurant along the way and realize we are hungry. We stop in. We are served the most delicious food we have ever eaten. It is simple, but exquisite. We notice that everyone else in the restaurant is enjoying the simple of pleasure of eating and fellowship. It also dawns on us there are no fast food restaurants in Simplicity.
Simplicity is a place where the people take daily pleasure in the gifts of God.
We find ourselves humming, "'Tis a gift to be simple. 'Tis a gift to be free. 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be."
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While in this strange place, we begin to feel the pull. The rhythm of Simplicity begins to resonant with our souls. We sense the draw on our hearts… to live here. "Wow, I think I would like to live in Simplicity."
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We would not worry about schedules. Our lives, in the real world, are full of here and there. Our lives are full of this and then that. Our lives are full this thing and then another. From the moment we wake, typically before we really want to, till we go to bed at night, after we really should, every time-slot is full of activity. It would be nice to live in Simplicity. We might learn to release our obsession with activity. "That sounds nice." We feel the pull.
We realize in Simplicity we night lose our attachment to having. Freedom is not allowing our stuff to rule us. If we have one car, we have one set of problems. If we have two, it is twice the chores. The more things we have the more we have to take care of the things we have. In Simplicity we relinquish the control stuff has in our lives. Stuff is just stuff. I own my stuff. I can get rid of my stuff. My stuff does not dictate to me. In Simplicity extravagance for the sake of extravagance is traded for unpretentious elegance. "That does sound nice." Simplicity tugs on our hearts.
Living in Simplicity soon looses all need for status. We, typically, crave the respect of our peers. We hunger for the praise of our position. We work hard to be the best; to do the best; to achieve what no man has ever achieved before. We long for the approval of others. We are torn in different directions by competing needs to meet everyone else's agenda for us. "What will they think?" drives us in every direction at the same time. But that is not the way it is, here, in Simplicity. "Wouldn't it be nice to not even consider pleasing everyone? The draw toward Simplicity grows in our hearts.
In Simplicity people are not defined by what they do. People are not valued by how much they accomplish. They are not respected because we are good at this or excel at that. Simplicity does not find self-worth in external criteria. Each person, made in the image of God, is infinitely valued. "I want to be infinitely valued and I want to see everyone as precious."
We realize, after just a short time in Simplicity, that we are singing, "And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."
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As we return to the cruise ship, we suddenly realize the greatest gift in Simplicity is the ability to focus on what really matters.
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The words of Jesus run through our heads.
Matthew
6:19-21
"Do not store up
for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be
also."
Simplicity is the purity of heart to want one
thing. Simplicity has but one
heart. Simplicity knows what is
essential. Simplicity is not
swamped by a cacophony of desires.
That is the trick. If we
want one thing, then all the rest loses power over us. Simplicity is having God at the center
of our existence. If drawing closer
to God is that one thing, then all the rest will fail to control us. It is in the unity of focus that we
achieve Simplicity.
Jesus goes on in Matthew
6.
Matthew 6:22-24
"The eye is the lamp
of the body. If your eyes are good,
your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is
darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and
Money."
What do our eyes see? What is it that looks good to us? If we see the stuff of this world as what we want, then our whole existence will be lived in darkness. If our eyes are only looking for the stuff this world has, then "how great is that darkness." But if our eyes are good; if we see that what we essentially want is to be close to God, then we will be full of light. We are, then, full of God, who is light.
Jesus says we need to make a choice; stuff or God? If we attempt to do both we end up with spiritual schizophrenia.
Richard Foster addresses this schizophrenia.
We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments. One moment we make decisions on the
basis of sound reason and the next moment out of fear of what others will think
of us. We have no unity or focus
around which our lives are oriented.
Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an
insane attachment to things. We
really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is
psychotic. It is psychotic because
it has completely lost touch with reality.
We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want, to impress
people, we do not like. Where
planned obsolescence leaves off, psychological obsession takes over. We are made to feel ashamed to wear
clothes or drive cars until they are worn out. The mass media have convinced us that to
be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time we awaken to the fact that
conformity to a sick society is to be sick. Until we see how unbalanced our culture
has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the "mammon spirit"
within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity.
- Richard Foster
-
To live in Simplicity we must pay a nickel and make a choice. Attempting to be Christians, who love the world, leads to psychosis. Either, forget it and go be a pagan, or draw close to the divine center. We must pay a nickel and make a choice; treasures here or treasures there.
"Where true simplicity is gained. To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed."
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As we arrive back in our cabin onboard the cruise ship, we make an ironic discovery.
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Simplicity is the place where we can appreciate our stuff. That is ironic! In serving the world we are so obsessed with having, we have no desire to enjoy. Loving the praise of others is so demanding there is no joy in relationships. Trying to get ahead in the rat race is so tiring there is no fulfillment in achievement. Eating fast doesn't even taste the food. Manipulation of others takes away the joy of their generosity. It is all wrong. There is no joy of God's gifts outside of Simplicity.
But in Simplicity there is joy in the pleasure of God's creation. Simplicity understands stuff as gifts from God to be appreciated. Simplicity takes time to be in the presence of people enjoying fellowship. Working hard, doing what God has gifted you to do, expresses our fulfillment in God. In Simplicity Happy Meals are.
In Simplicity there is freedom from stuff. There is freedom to enjoy stuff. Isn't that an ironic? Isn't that fantastic?
I think that is what the Scripture means in Deuteronomy 8.
Deuteronomy 8:6-10 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-- a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
Wow, praise God for good! This praise only exists in Simplicity. Simplicity sets us free to receive God's blessings as a gift to be enjoyed and shared.
Adele Calhoun in the "Spiritual Disciplines Handbook" lists seven God given benefits to living in Simplicity. How many of these sound good?
- living an uncluttered life
- becoming clearer, more distilled as a person
- creating more space in your life for serving God
- using simple, honest speech without dissembling
- experiencing freedom from entitlement
- being able to let go
- staking your identity in God's love, not accumulations
"To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come round right."
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It would be great to live in Simplicity.
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Last week I told you the secret formula for drawing closer to God. Remember? It was from James 4:7-8
James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves,
then, to God. Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you. Come near to
God and he will come near to you.
Submit - Resist - Come
The first step toward Simplicity is to submit. We must internally decide to place God at the center. We must give up the other master and focus our hearts on the divine center. We decide we want to be closer to God more than we want anything else in the world. That is Submit.
Next week we are going to stay here in Simplicity and explore the Resist and the Come parts of the formula. We are going to look at the obstacles which Satan places in the way of Simplicity and then some practical exercises which help to stay in Simplicity. "Boy, I can't wait till next week!"
I want to give some assignments along the way for those who are going on the journey with me. This week I want us to focus on our hearts. Perhaps, a prayer for simplicity is a good assignment.
Every time you check to see what time it is or check your cell phone for messages, I want you to pray the first part of the Simple Gifts song as a prayer of blessing for simplicity.
"'Tis a gift to be simple."
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