Stewardship Moment
October 4, 2009
Simplicity
Our Finance Committee has chosen What is Enough? as this year’s Stewardship Campaign theme. We are using a modified version of a campaign by Adam Hamilton that invites us to “Discover Joy through Simplicity and Generosity”. We have added faith, hope and contentment as other ways to look at the question What is Enough?
Today we will think about Simplicity.
In 1848 Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett began his song Simple Gifts with “’Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free”. Simple here does not refer to a simpleton, but to a simple life style, a life style that doesn’t try to “keep up with the Jones”, that isn’t based on buying something that is only wanted but not needed, a life style that doesn’t over spend. The gift of being free can mean free from debt but also free to follow one’s purpose.
You’ve heard stories or you may be one who lived through the 1930’s and the era of the Great Depression. Most people who lived then learned to live simply.
An example of the thinking at that time was in the September issue of Guideposts. An article by Norman Vincent Peale’s daughter recalls a story of her parents during the Depression. Norman was the pastor of the University Methodist Church in Syracuse, NY at the time. He worried how the church would survive, how his family would survive, how they would pay bills. Mrs. Peale was the one who set their priorities. She said, “Things will be fine. All we need to do is give.” They were able to have enough to give by being thrifty and frugal, in other words, by simplifying their life style. They also may have been willing to give before they spent anything else rather than to give from the leftovers.
This must have been the conclusion of many people at the time. This was pointed out to me at the Lay Academy workshop on Stewardship I attended during the spring given by a United Methodist clergyman who at the time was also in charge of giving at Guideposts. He included an interesting chart in his presentation that compared giving and US per capita income from 1916 to 2000. During the depression, people were giving more of their income than the years before or since. Even though they made less, they gave a larger part of their income.
Although stories of the 1930’s may be stories of the lack of material things, they are stories of enjoying simple things and helping others. We saw this in the 1970’s TV program, Walton’s Mountain, based on Earl Hamner’s life.
Our biblical ancestors realized that acquiring things has no meaning.
The author said in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (New International Version)
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
and
Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10b (New International Version)
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves with many griefs.
What can you do if you feel like those who buy everything they want, who hoard or lust for money, and who feel life is meaningless?
To start you might simplify spending by avoiding impulse buying. Not only does more stuff cost you more money but also the stuff clutters your home. There are people whose homes get so cluttered they get bigger and bigger homes and even rent storage space for the stuff that they cannot use. The more they acquire, the more they want. One also can impulse buy in the grocery store. If you take the lure of the specials at the end of the aisle put there for you to grab, you end up with things you do not need. If you buy more perishables than you can eat, you have to throw them away. They cannot be stored in extra rooms or in a storage unit. For these people their life’s purpose seems to be acquiring stuff that is not used and only stored or thrown away.
Cutting down spending also might mean limiting credit card buying for things that cannot be paid off each month. Some people have so much debt that they have trouble playing the minimum amount due. The stress of that knowledge does little to simplify.
Despite the claim of the media that the country’s economic health is based on increased production and increased consumption, we don’t exist to consume. The big question then becomes, what is our purpose here?
The Adult Sunday School class is studying Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life. Although we have gone over only the first few chapters, we have been challenged to think about what drives us.
What is it that guides, controls or directs you? It could be guilt, resentment, anger, fear, the need for approval, materialism. You might be driven to acquire things or to pay for things that have already been acquired. You might be driven to make more or you might be driven to give more. Are you driven by God’s purpose for you? Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate everything you do.
We are not here by chance. We are all here for a reason. Have you discovered yours?
When you discover your real purpose, you can be guided, and directed by God. There are many benefits to a purpose-driven life. Paraphrasing Rick Warren, he says that knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life, simplifies your life, focuses your life, motivates your life and prepares you for the next life.
Thinking back to the Shaker song “’Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free”, I challenge you to accept the gift to be simple and be free to let God direct your life.
-Carole Anderson
