Abundant Simplicity E-Book

Jan Johnson

• Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 231

Beschreibung

Which activities give you energy and connect you with God? Do you know what behaviors are life-draining for you, separating you from God?Simplicity is about choosing the engaging, relational life we were meant to live. It means shedding obligation and pretension. It means spending - time - energy - moneyin ways that help us become clear-headed. It means being intentional about what we do and how we live. These choices allow God's power to move through us and bless others as we have space to do good.In each chapter Jan Johnson provides small experiments with simplicity as well as questions for discussion or reflection to get you started.Come and discover the unhurried rhythms of grace.

Leseprobe

“Jan Johnson’s Abundant Simplicity opens up an inviting spiritual path with clear explanations, rich references to a long Christian spiritual tradition, searching exercises in self-examination and piercing questions. Her vivid style and depth of perception help us to practice authentic simplicity and gain the abundant blessings of doing so. All under the power of God’s grace.”

Emilie Griffin, author of Souls in Full Sail

“Jan Johnson believes that an outwardly simple life yields great inner riches. Weaving together Scriptures, stories and practical suggestions, she paints an inviting picture of simplicity and encourages the reader to embrace this countercultural, yet fruitful, spiritual practice. Her winsome and engaging perspective is urgently needed today.”

Lynne M. Baab, author of Sabbath Keeping and Friending

“What I find so engaging about Abundant Simplicity is the natural way Jan Johnson unfolds spiritual disciplines as partners in the abundant life of God. . . . The regular practice of asking our hearts, ‘What is running me?’ may not only reveal motives we’re not proud of but also offer opportunities to lead a more peaceful, simple life.”

Dr. Norvene Vest, author of Gathered in the Word and Re-Visioning Theology

“Jan Johnson writes in a clear style that seeks to make spirituality—following God’s Spirit in daily life—more accessible to the reader. She challenges readers yet expresses sympathetic patience with the difficulty of practicing spiritual disciplines.”

Gordon Houser, associate editor of The Mennonite

“For our hurried and harried existence, both within and without the church, Jan Johnson proposes fruitful pathways leading to a simpler and less cluttered lifestyle. Abundant Simplicity offers guidelines that commend to readers life-giving simplicity through protocols such as economy of speech (clipping our tongues), loosening our grip on possessions (frugality) and creating margins in life (leisure). The more I read, the more engrossed, convicted and encouraged I became to pursue the abundant life for the glory of God and the good of others.”

Bruce Demarest, professor of Christian formation, Denver Seminary, and author of Seasons of the Soul

“In a world where abundant has come to mean prosperity and simplicity is often equated with scarcity, Jan Johnson proposes an alternative. She introduces us to a biblical lifestyle of fullness—full in ways that only God can fill. In our materialistic, over-scheduled, stress-filled world . . . we need to tame the monster called ‘more.’ Abundant Simplicity is a monster-tamer.”

Paul Borthwick, author of Simplify and Six Dangerous Questions to Transform Your View of the World

“Once again writer Jan Johnson proves herself to be a wise, welcoming and eminently helpful guide as we follow Jesus day by day. Abundant Simplicity assists readers in taking a long, grace-imbued look into our deepest selves, discerning what within us is in keeping with our journey of faith, and then, by God’s grace and spiritual discipline, discarding what is not. As Johnson demonstrates in theologically sound and practical ways, when we are winnowed toward holiness, what remains is, indeed, simple and abundant.”

Susan S. Phillips, author of Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction and executive director, New College Berkeley

“Time and possessions, words and worries are the raw material that comprise daily life. They are also the places where students of Jesus often experience the ‘simplicity gap’—the distance between their desire for simplicity and their experience of it. In Abundant Simplicity Jan Johnson wisely, gently and creatively demonstrates how that raw material of ordinary living can be transformed into extraordinary kingdom living through experiments and adventures in simplicity. This is a book of lived truth and uncommon yet simple wisdom.”

Howard Baker, instructor of Christian formation, Denver Seminary, and author of The One True Thing

Abundant Simplicity

Discovering the Unhurried Rhythms of Grace

Formatio books from InterVarsity Press follow the rich tradition of the church in the journey of spiritual formation. These books are not merely about being informed, but about being transformed by Christ and conformed to his image. Formatio stands in InterVarsity Press’s evangelical publishing tradition by integrating God’s Word with spiritual practice and by prompting readers to move from inward change to outward witness. InterVarsity Press uses the chambered nautilus for Formatio, a symbol of spiritual formation because of its continual spiral journey outward as it moves from its center. We believe that each of us is made with a deep desire to be in God’s presence. Formatio books help us to fulfill our deepest desires and to become our true selves in light of God’s grace.

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected]

©2011 by Jan Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Design: Cindy Kiple Images: © mariia sniegirova/depostiphotos.com

ISBN 978-0-8308-6863-6 (digital)

Contents

1. Abundant Life with God

2. Coping with Plenty

3. What Do You Really Want?

Interlude: What Simplicity Might Look Like

4. Fewness and Fullness of Words

5. Living Light in a Land of Plenty

6. A Generous, Not Grasping, Life

7. The Intentional, Unhurried Life

8. Putting the “Free” in Free Time

9. Everyday Life Simplicity

10. Worry No Longer Necessary

Acknowledgments

Notes

About the Author

1 Abundant Life with God

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

As followers of Christ, many of us would like to live a conversational life with God and be filled with a deeper sense of God’s companionship. We’d also like to change—to be more kind and less crabby, more generous and less self-absorbed, more genuine and less forced.

If we want these things enough, we may start reading books and attending classes and retreats, practicing the disciplines usually taught there: solitude, silence, reflective prayer and meditative ways of reading Scripture. We often find these ways of relating to God to be nurturing and life-changing. We even talk about how we’ll never read the Bible the same way again or how we’re opening up to hearing God in our life. We want more!

But when we get back to normal life, our new techniques don’t seem to work. The possibilities we saw before us fade away. Why can’t we hold on to the genuine transformation we desire? Because we’re trying to breathe in the oxygen of real life with God without breathing out the daily chaos that chokes out such interaction.

Experiments

One way to breathe out the frenzy of life is to weave disciplines of simplicity into our daily rhythms. Simplicity is the factor we most often overlook when we’re seeking soul-nurturing companionship with God. It is the unstated component of a retreat that we can’t easily practice at home or work. During a retreat, our speech is slower and simpler, perhaps even to the point where we become silent. Access to possessions such as clothing and electronics is limited, so we are less distracted. Time flows slowly and easily. Leisure abounds. Without realizing it, we are practicing disciplines of simplicity:

simplicity of speech

frugality

spaciousness of time

holy leisure

simplicity of appearance and technology

Simplicity is not a discipline itself but a way of being. It is letting go of things others consider normal. It is an “inward reality of single-hearted focus upon God and [God’s] kingdom, which results in an outward lifestyle of modesty, openness, and unpretentiousness and which disciplines our hunger for status, glamour, and luxury.” We practice simplicity when we intentionally arrange our life around God—what he is doing in us and in this world—and let the rest drop off.

By the end of the forty days, she’d forgotten about most of the things she wanted.

Such careful arrangement comes from following disciplines of simplicity, several of which we’ll examine in this book. Within these disciplines, we can use specific practices to help us breathe out. You will find suggested ways to experiment with these simplicity practices at the end of each chapter. Along the way I’ll introduce you to people who tried out such experiments and tell how these simple activities affected them. For example, Carol experimented with simplicity when several of her friends at work were giving things up for Lent. She didn’t ordinarily practice Lent, but the idea of simplifying drew her. To her husband’s surprise, she gave up shopping. She still purchased groceries for her family once a week, but other than that she bought nothing for forty days.

Whenever Carol thought about something she wanted to purchase during that time, she said to God, “I’ll let it wait. You are enough.” By the end of the forty days, she’d forgotten about most of the things she wanted. Reflecting on her experiment, she notes, “I had more time for people because life was less hectic. Being in stores messes with your mind. It convinces you that you need things you don’t need at all.”

Carol’s experiment with setting aside shopping also gave way to more daily conversation with God and created more space for loving others. She experienced more of the abundant life that humans were created to experience here and now—trusting God, abiding in Christ and living in terms of the Spirit (Mt 6:33; Lk 17:21). Living the moments of our days in this kingdom life brings about justice, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).

Treasuring God

You may be reading this book because you want to learn how to slow down and be happy, live a rich life by spending less, or work smarter and not harder. While those things may occur as a natural result of simplicity, they are only byproducts. The point of simplicity is not efficiency, increased productivity or even living a healthier, more relaxed life. The point is making space for treasuring God’s own self (Mt 6:19-21).

“The most important commandment of the Judeo-Christian tradition is to treasure God and his realm more than anything else,” says philosopher and author Dallas Willard. “That is what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It means to treasure him, to hold him and his dear, and to protect and aid him in his purposes. Our only wisdom, safety, and fulfillment lies in so treasuring God.” Disciplines of simplicity equip us to gather treasures in heaven, which Willard describes as investing our life in what God is doing, investing in our relationship to Jesus himself (and through him to God) and devoting ourselves to the good of other people—those within the range of our power to affect.

So the Christian focus of simplicity is to abide in Christ, or what we might call “hanging out” with God. As a result of this abiding, we organically manifest fruit such as love, joy and peace (Jn 15:4-5), which creates an obedience that is so empowered and remarkable that it surprises us (Jn 15:10-17). This is the true change we’ve been looking for.

Bloated Christians

Habits of simplicity help us connect with God in a way that is quite practical: They clear the mind and calendar to make room for better things, such as holy leisure and gut-level prayer. Without practices of simplicity, we wake up in the morning and begin filling our mind with a list of things to do. We can’t pause because we feel driven to:

be busy and be productive

get going on all the things we’ve promised to do

clean, fix and tidy up our possessions

give our feedback about important situations

participate in the frenzied quest for physical attractiveness

Disciplines of engagement are like breathing in, and disciplines of abstinence are like breathing out. We need to exhale as well as inhale.

To limit the time and attention we spend on these things is not to miss out. In fact, it is a relief. A life of personal interaction and adventure with God gives rise to contentment. We realize we’re satisfied with earning an adequate income and living in our current apartment or home. We see the beauty in ordinary things as a gift from God. We live life treasuring God and what he is doing today.

In the recent past, followers of Christ have mostly practiced disciplines of engagement, such as study, prayer, service, worship and fellowship. Disciplines of engagement help us take in the life of God. Disciplines of abstinence, however, such as fasting, solitude, silence, chastity, secrecy, frugality and simplicity of speech and time, help us let go of life-draining behaviors. We need to exhale what is unnecessary as well as inhale nourishment from God.

Practices of simplicity keep us from becoming bloated and swollen—unable to digest or use what we have taken in. Only as we say no to certain things do we create space to say yes to God and to live adventurous, abundant lives full of relationships and meaning.

This process of choosing the engaging, relational life we were built to live is described by Pedro Arrupe:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evening, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide every- thing.

Unchanged and Stuck

When people emphasize engagement disciplines to the neglect of abstinence practices, they may feel “filled up,” but in reality they are likely to become agitated when things don’t go their way or when others don’t do what they want. They may know, practice and teach spiritual disciplines, but they still find themselves being impatient, egotistical or pushy.

This is because they have not blended engagement disciplines with abstinence disciplines, which prune away self-indulgence and willfulness—in other words, stubbornness (Jn 15:2). They train us to be sweet and content when we don’t get what we want, whether it’s a doughnut, a deserved recognition, a particular possession or others doing things our way.

If we don’t practice abstinence disciplines regularly, we find ourselves stuck. We become reliant on our own devices (yelling, manipulation) to get people to do things, or we turn to inappropriate sources of satisfaction (our job, Internet porn). We’re unable to experience transformation no matter how much we pray or meditate because there’s all this stuff in us that needs undoing.

We may not even be aware of the ingrained patterns of behavior we use to crush others and sabotage ourselves. We don’t realize we’re using words, possessions and busyness to feel important, to manage other people’s opinions of us and, most of all, to get people to do what we want. An inner neediness of soul pushes us to indulge ourselves and get people to like us.

As life becomes more outwardly simple, it becomes more inwardly rich.

Think about how you felt the last few times you did something that led to twinges of regret: you said or spent too much, you tried too hard to impress someone, you put too much effort into trying to have fun, or you spent too many hours wandering the Internet or watching television because you were bored.

Simplicity disciplines empower us to temporarily give these things up. When we do, we see how deeply we have counted on them to (falsely) feel nurtured and acceptable. We also see how they suck up our time, drain our energy and create craziness in our inner life. Simplicity’s undoing process creates space for God to work with our motives and thoughts. We begin to ask ourselves, Can I let go of this grudge, this dessert, this role, this incredible phone and rely on God to meet my needs instead? Then, once our neediness of soul becomes clear, we can turn to disciplines of engagement to find the specific kind of nourishment we truly need from God.

In this undoing process, we learn to rely on God minute by minute for practical things when we don’t get what we think we need or want. This greater dependence on God in turn rehabilitates patterns we don’t want to think about. The change is not punishing but freeing. We shed pretentious and forced ways of speaking and spending time, energy and money. Choosing what to buy and how to enjoy leisure becomes less complicated because we make intentional and unadorned choices. We become clear-headed in our thinking.

As life becomes more outwardly simple, it becomes more inwardly rich. It also becomes more fun because we can focus on one thing at a time without becoming stressed. With greater satisfaction of heart, our sense of restlessness ( I’m bored . . . I need to . . . ) disappears. We move toward contentment, finding it easier to experience unexpected adventures with God as we say yes to him in new ways.

More of Jesus, Less of Ego

Simplicity is an organic part of an interactive life with God, as Sharon illustrates with this account:

What happened was just the next step in our apprenticeship to Jesus. Bob and I weren’t trying to do anything heroic or exemplary. We were simply trying to be wise in light of the kindness of God.

It began because I had a longing for God that found intimacy in solitude, silence, fasting and contemplative reading. The books I was reading drew me to live a more generous life, by invitation and not by guilt. I wanted more of God and wanted to live in the kingdom now, not just talk about it. I began seeing Jesus as someone who cared about real people, not just about correct doctrine. As I talked with Jesus about what was on his heart, wealth seemed like it wouldn’t make his top ten list.

Also, our worldly way of accumulation was not working. It turned out to be time-consuming. Achieving and maintaining the magazine home was an exhausting burden, even with help to keep it up. So my desire also arose out of failure as well as the gentle prodding of God.

The result was that Bob and I sold our house and scaled back. It has been so liberating. With the freed-up money, we were able to buy a smaller house for ourselves and also to hold the loan for a Congolese immigrant family we’d begun working with. With reduced economic pressures, we could give more. Once we started to live more simply, shopping became a waste of time because we didn’t want more stuff to enter our house.

I also began eliminating activities. This freed up emotional space so that I was increasingly able to consider new ideas that came to my attention—ideas that seemed to be more on God’s radar than my next tennis match. Tennis is fine, of course, but I was willing to give it up in order to have more of Jesus. Plus, I was a lousy tennis player!

As I experienced newfound freedom through simplifying my time and money, another thought wiggled into my mind: I could also be free of the compelling drive to demand my way (nicely, of course). Until this point, it seemed the only natural way to live. My practice of fasting confirmed it: I realized I was just fine without what I wanted (food). I started to test it out in other areas of life. Simplifying has been one of the greatest adventures I’ve ever experienced. Life has gotten more interesting, not less.

Sharon’s journey began with a longing for God. She found it difficult to pass through the narrow door to life that is truly life (Mt 7:13-14; 1 Tim 6:19) when her arms were full of possessions, tasks and leisure activities. Sharon and Bob’s decisions resulted not only in freedom from financial pressures but also in freedom to participate in the adventure of helping an immigrant family. Sharon also saw herself freed from that compelling drive to have her way. In letting go, she found she’d gained much more.

Examining the Heart

However, while simplicity disciplines bring freedom, they also make us feel uncomfortable, especially at first. They reveal the petty things we do to be noticed or to indulge ourselves. We may not have known we were hooked on luxuries, other people’s attention or dressing to impress until we abstained from those things for a while. Then we find we’ve used them to prop ourselves up or push ourselves forward. We begin wondering, Why does it devastate me to think about giving away this item? Why was it so important that I mention that accomplishment? Will I make a decent impression if my clothes don’t make a statement? Disciplines of simplicity help us realize that we don’t yet trust God to help us feel acceptable when we’re not managing what others think of us.

Self-awareness is central to transformation.

As an awareness of how we treasure things other than God comes to the surface, we ask ourselves (and God), What have been the subtle payoffs of my busy schedule, gathering knowledge in a particular area or owning the latest technology? We may discover that we’re preoccupied with “impression management”—controlling what other people think about us. Disciplines of simplicity reveal the self-serving motives we thought only other people had: pride, greed and desires to control.

Without conversations in which we ask ourselves and God these hard questions, our transformation will be shortchanged. Self-awareness is central to transformation because it shows us what we truly treasure. Indeed, the devotional masters stressed the twin themes of knowing God and knowing ourselves in how the Spirit works within us.

If we are to journey toward Christlikeness, we need to know “what is”—what we are truly like today. When we’re unaware of our faults, we’re fooled into thinking external practices are enough. No. True abiding in Christ helps me see my internal absurdities and self-centeredness along with God’s radiant beauty. The heart exams of simplicity disciplines help us recognize, surrender and begin to work through our shortcomings with God.

It’s not about “getting it right” but about following Jesus because that’s the wisest, most winsome thing we could ever do.

Perhaps it sounds too devastating to recognize our character defects this way. God gives us grace to be gentle with ourselves. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of our shortcomings not so that we’ll feel guilty and force ourselves to shape up. (This doesn’t work anyway; the distraction of guilt keeps us stuck and distances us from God.) Rather, the Spirit gives us insightful awareness so we have a place to start. God is not mad at us, but mad about us. God is a safe shelter in which we can face our underlying motives and determine our next steps.

Without these heart exams, we live the life of a sleepwalker, which philosophy professor Tom Morris describes well: “getting up, dressing, eating, going to work, breaking for lunch, working some more, going home, eating again, watching TV, leafing through magazines, exchanging a few words with fellow family members in the house or with friends on the phone, changing for bed, and falling to sleep—just to repeat the same routine all over, and over and over, without ever thinking about what it all means or how life should be really lived.”

I confess that some of my own experiments with simplicity have produced extreme disappointment when I discovered that I was obsessed with myself. I thought I was selfless, but in fact I was preoccupied with what others thought of me. I was tempted to go back to the sleepwalking life. But I also realized that no one—not God, not the angels and certainly not my husband—was surprised by the fact of my self-obsession. Only I was. And my disillusionment with my needy state only made my spirituality more about me when I wanted it to be more about God. My job was to ask God to show me the next small step and empower me to take it. Then I needed to continue being open to what God might say to me.

Our misguided motives do not need to surprise us. The big deal is never our own spiritual status; it’s God. We need to get over ourselves and our inadequacies and let Jesus become the central figure on the computer screen of our minds. It’s not about “getting it right” but about following Jesus because that’s the wisest, most winsome thing we could ever do.

Mistakes That Distract

To keep focused on treasuring God, set aside these ways of thinking:

Trying too hard. All spiritual disciplines involve experimentation and adventure. They cause us to ask what it would look like to trust God enough to not promote ourselves by means of overcommitment and a hurried life. To force ourselves to try certain practices that others try or to try to achieve simplicity doesn’t work. Such coercion defeats self-awareness because it requires us to numb ourselves in order to adhere to the rigors of the practice.

Perhaps more sadly, if we force ourselves to do these things and seem successful, we become self-righteous. We begin to think we’re better than others because they haven’t given up what we have. See how frugal I am, especially compared to you! Eventually, however, I come to resent you because I gave up certain things and you didn’t, but now you get more attention than I do.

Simplicity disciplines may be especially challenging if we’re hooked on looking good, feeling good, having people like us or not wanting people to misjudge us. In those cases, it’s wise to ask God what practices would be most helpful and not force ourselves into simplicity martyrdom (throwing the cell phone into the fountain at the strip mall we’ve vowed never to frequent again). Keep in mind that God woos and draws us into unusual but appropriate practices of simplicity. From them (and the conversations with God they create) comes simplicity of life.

Thinking we have to add more activities to our life. Disciplines of simplicity cause us to arrange differently what we already do—whether it’s speaking to others, spending money, scheduling our day or having fun—not to do more things. These different ways of living lift us out of bondage and help us relate to people in more genuine ways. We take on less, not more.

Thinking simplicity means cutting back. Practices of simplicity are about focusing inward. Every no to a shopping trip or a television show makes space for a yes to something else, even if it’s just to be still and be glad that God is God. Any practice of simplicity, no matter how small, invites us to take a step on the path of treasuring God as we let go of other things.