For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land — a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. Deuteronomy 8:7–9
“Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us. Without simplicity we will either capitulate to the “mammon” spirit of this present evil age, or we will fall into an un-Christian legalistic asceticism. Both lead to idolatry. Both are spiritually lethal.
Descriptions of the abundant material provision God gives His people abound in Scripture. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…a land…in which you will lack nothing” (Deut. 8:7–9). Warnings about the danger of provisions that are not kept in proper perspective also abound. “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’” (Deut. 8:17).
The spiritual discipline of simplicity provides the needed perspective. Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can be freely shared with others. Once we recognize that the Bible denounces the materialist and the ascetic with equal vigor, we are prepared to turn our attention to the framing of a Christian understanding of simplicity.”
Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 84-85.
Today is my anniversary. Jenni and I celebrate 33 years. In Scripture the number links to the length of the earthly life of Jesus and divine promises and completeness. I thank God for a wife that is a divine gift from God who completes me.
Part of what I appreciate about Jenni is her ordered attachments. She’s attached to God as the highest priority of her life so it’s not hard to abandon materialism and asceticism. She enjoys and shares life and love like Jesus.
And I am thankful God has put us in Colorado the last 26 years. It’s a good land with mountains and streams and it has provided a place for us to thrive. Today I am thankful to be in a good land with a great wife willing to pursue simplicity.
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