Simplicity, Weeks 5 & 6: Lent Adjustments...

Things never go quite the way they were planned. For instance, the work of the Holy Spirit (this borrowed from maryhomegirl.tumblr.com):

How the Holy Spirit works in our lives: Usually unseen...

But sometimes just barely glimpsed:

Unexpected, unplanned.

And so here's my unexpected simplicity story at this point.

Week 5: Lent Adjustments

I planned to fast (from food) for 24 hours each week during Lent, and donate the money. But... things don't always work out the way we plan.

It's become clear that God is not calling me to fast from food right now. I feel weird about that because I've just asked our congregation to try fasting. Weird or not, though, this is my call right now.

But practicing some sort of fasting during Lent is important to me. It's a way to remember that this is a special time, a time set apart from the rest of the year. It's a way to remind me that even right now as I'm sitting at my computer, the Holy Spirit is probably dancing behind me.

So instead of fasting from food, I'll be fasting from television on the Sabbath each week (thanks Austin for the idea). So far I'm LOVING it. I like watching TV, I love the stories and I love the creativity, and I love imagining a different world a little bit at a time. But it's easy to get sucked in. So during Lent, on Fridays, no TV. Sometimes simplicity means getting rid of the extra noise, allowing ourselves to enter the (somewhat scary) spaces of quiet. The spaces that we normally fill by turning to a screen.

Week 6: The Active Life

If you're counting, you know that I didn't post last week. I was discerning the whole Lent thing and didn't find my way until the end of the week, so I decided to do two posts in one this week.

This week's practice is reading The Active Life by Parker Palmer. We're reading it for one of the groups at church, and I've rarely found a book that holds these two things together so well:

1. It is amazingly encouraging and uplifting. It's a book that says: you can do it, simply trust your gifts and the grace of God. (Simplicity doesn't necessarily mean doing less stuff, but doing the things that are most central to who you are and to your calling from God. This book encourages that.)
2. I believe it.

I believe it because it looks at the shadow side of our actions - the motivations that come from fear and shame and seeking after power. It moves into and through those darker motivations and desires - not to say that we shouldn't act, but to help us be more free (and simple) in our actions. It's not just encouraging - it's encouraging and honest, and so I believe the encouragement.

For instance, Palmer uses the poem "Active Life" by Chaung Tzu to explore the shadow side of acting. Here's the poem:

"Active Life" (as quoted in The Active Life by Parker Palmer)

If an expert does not have some problem to vex him, he is unhappy!
If a philosopher's teaching is never attacked, she pines away!
If critics have no one on whom to exercise their spite, they are unhappy.
All such people are prisoners in the world of objects.

He who wants followers, seeks political power.
She who wants reputation, holds an office.
The strong man looks for weights to lift.
The brave woman looks for an emergency in which she can show bravery.
The swordsman wants a battle in which he can swing his sword.
People past their prime prefer a dignified retirement, in which they may seem profound.
People experienced in law seek difficult cases to extend the application of laws.
Liturgists and musicians like festivals in which they parade their ceremonious talents.
The benevolent, the dutiful, are always looking for chances to display virtue.

Where would the gardener be if there were no more weeds?
What would become of business without a market of fools?
Where would the masses be if there were no pretext for getting jammed together and making noise?
What would become of labor if there were no superfluous objects to be made?
Produce! Get results! Make money! Make friends! Make changes!
Or you will die of despair!

Those who are caught in the machinery of power take no joy except in activity and change - the whirring of the machine! Whenever an occasion for action presents itself, they are compelled to act; they cannot help themselves. They are inexorably moved, like the machine of which they are a part. Prisoners in the world of objects, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of the matter! They are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind! The active life! What a pity!

This comes pretty early in the book. Doesn't it make you curious - how could a book that encourages, that celebrates, that recognizes the value of an active life, include this poem? Palmer's writing admits the truth in this poem, and still comes to a place that values right action, action that flows from the center of who we are, that flows from who we are created and called to be. That's another way of describing simplicity: Simplicity is acting out of the center of who we are. Simplicity is acting out of who we are created and called to be. Though the word "simplicity" isn't prominent in this book, the book is about simplicity.

So I'm going to read this book... and then maybe read it again. And maybe again. I may keep reading this book all year. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and it's a book I need to keep coming back to.

How is God calling you to simplify your life?

Happy simplifying!