Soul CareSample

Room For Your Soul To Breathe

It’s fair to say most of us overcrowd our schedules and hoard too much junk. Perhaps you even chose this reading plan because you know you’re way too busy, and you’ve got way too much stuff. Thankfully, Jesus models another keystone habit to help you tend to the garden of your inner life when it comes to managing time and things: simplicity.

Jesus was a first-century minimalist, living lightly and freely when it came to His stuff and His schedule. He travelled from town to town, carrying just what He needed. He stayed in people’s homes and ate with them, and He told His apprentices to do the same. ‘Don’t worry about clothes, food, and the future,’ He would tell them. ‘God’s got you.’ Jesus differentiated between what we need and what we want, giving us a stunning description of how our Heavenly Father cherishes us and meets our every need. Jesus also warned of the dangers of cluttering our lives with too many appointments and our cupboards with way more than we need. He encouraged us to invest in things of eternal value, understanding that our deepest desires are closely aligned with the things we possess, which we see in Matthew 6:19-34.

Joshua Becker defines minimalism as the intentional promotion of what we value most by removing everything that distracts us from it. So, considering Jesus’ teachings, how do we intentionally promote things that will last for eternity – rather than obsessing over things that won’t?

These four steps have helped me build the keystone habit of simplicity:

1. Define what you really need. Start with the basics – food, clothing and shelter – and go from there.
2. Discover your distractions. Which things are not most important to you, and yet regularly distract you?
3. Decide how you’ll start removing those distractions, and finally –
4. Do it. Eliminate distractions in your life. Generosity is the greatest antidote to gathering and greed. Give some stuff away.

Of course, adopting Jesus’ lifestyle habit of simplicity is completely countercultural – and difficult. The weeds you pull up from the garden of your inner life will pop up again and again. Keep weeding – keep decluttering – so your soul can thrive and be fruitful.

Can you imagine for a moment what adopting this habit of simple living could do for you? Imagine the clarity and freedom it will bring. Studies show that simplicity actually leads to better physical and mental health.

If you don’t fight for simplicity, you’ll drift into complexity. Adele Calhoun wisely said, ‘One day we will all have to let go of everything, even our own breath. It will be a day of utter simplicity. A day when the importance of stuff fades. Learning to live simply prepares us for our last breath while cultivating in us the freedom to truly live here and now.’