Simplicity in life is all about weeding out the non-essentials and focussing on the things that are truly important. Just as our houses easily get cluttered without regular clear-outs, our lives can become full of clutter and rubbish: things we do which aren’t really essential to our health or happiness (and in fact are often detrimental to both), but which have become so much a part of our everyday routines that we can’t imagine life without them.
To embrace simplicity means to be still long enough to look at things objectively and ruthless enough to do something about the non-essential things which God, by His Spirit, highlights to us. Michael Card sings,
‘In stillness and simplicity
In the silence of the heart I see
The mystery of eternity
Who lives inside of me.’ (‘In Stillness and Simplicity’, Michael Card)
Rend Collective remind us that Jesus is the only true essential in our lives: ‘Lord, strip it all away, ‘til only You remain.’ (‘Simplicity’)
This is a dangerous prayer to pray, for God has a habit of doing this forcibly if we are not willing to take the time to be still before Him and freely yield ourselves to Him. Nonetheless, there is enormous freedom to be found ‘in the things we leave behind’ (Michael Card), enormous freedom in understanding the absolute basics of our faith. In this Lenten period, let’s embrace simplicity and be strong enough to give up some of the non-essentials to focus on Jesus, the absolute centre of our faith.