Archives by: Gary Hoag

Step Four to Sabbath Simplicity: Revise [your Rhythms]

“So often, we get stuck in a rut. Write down all your commitments. Then figure out which ones you need to drop.

What sort of rhythm of life would be healthy for you? Create some space in your life—some unscheduled time. Take a Sabbath day, even if your family does not. Make your home, and your demeanor, calm and inviting, even if you can only do that one day a week. Give yourself one night a week where you get a full night’s sleep. You’ll be surprised how resting one day a week will affect the rest of your week—you’ll not only be more peaceful, you’re likely to be more productive.

Revise your life to make room for rest.”

Kerry Wyatt Kent, excerpt from Beliefnet blogpost on Steps to Sabbath Simplicity.

Step Three to Sabbath Simplicity: Value relationships over productivity.

“Our hurried lifestyle isolates us. How many times have you promised to connect with a friend, but you just don’t have time? If you’re a parent, do you have any time in your week where you can just enjoy your children?

If we make time for rest in our lives, it enables us to reconnect with those we love. Your to-do list can wait, but relationships suffer if they are neglected. A Sabbath Simplicity life includes taking one day out of your week to put aside your tasks and focus on spiritual and relational growth.

Take a Sabbath day. Spend time with people you care about and reconnect with your faith, friends, and family.”

Kerry Wyatt Kent, excerpt from Beliefnet blogpost on Steps to Sabbath Simplicity.

Step Two to Sabbath Simplicity: Be honest about your motivation.

“Consider your motives for being busy. Our culture often equates busyness with significance, and rest with laziness. While it is important to fully engage with our work or our families, we also need time to disengage, to rest.

Many of us are not only sleep deprived, we’re rest deprived. We don’t have enough time to relax, to connect with our loved ones, or to nurture ourselves. What motivates you to be as busy as ite it out—you need a good, close, exact look at where you are.”

Kerry Wyatt Kent, excerpt from Beliefnet blogpost on Steps to Sabbath Simplicity.

Step One to Sabbath Simplicity: Get real about your pace of life.

“I’m so busy!” How many times a day do you hear (or say) that? Our lives are hectic, in part because of the 24/7 culture we live in. But some of the stress comes from our own choices. We say “yes” too often. We overload our schedules. We long for a simpler life, but we’re not sure how to get there.

Over the years, I’ve taken steps to simplify my life, to live in what I call Sabbath Simplicity—a sanely paced, God-focused life. Here are simple (of course!) steps to finding the simplicity you long for.

How many commitments do you have each week? How many hours are devoted to work? Volunteering? How many hours do you spend in the car? Write out your weekly schedule, along with the schedule of your family members.

Is there any downtime? Write it out—you need a good, close, exact look at where you are.”

Kerry Wyatt Kent, excerpt from Beliefnet blogpost on Steps to Sabbath Simplicity.

“Money is the peep-hole through which we stoop down and view what we really believe. Our relation to money exposes our relationship to God.”

John D. Richardson, Giving Away the Collection Plate (Mustang, OK: Tate, 2012) 145.

“Money is like electricity; it is stored power, and it is only a question as to where that power is to be loosed.”

Adolphus Frederick Schauffler (1845-1919) in an address delivered at the Student Volunteer Convention, Cleveland, 1898, reprinted in “The Student Missionary Appeal” (SVM, 1904).

“When generosity is a fundamental disposition of a person’s being, then all the other virtues are increased and all the powers of the soul adorned, for a generous person is always joyful in spirit and carefree of heart, filled to overflowing with desires and dedicated to all persons without distinction in the practice of this virtue. However poor a person might be, if he is generous, and not enamored of the things of this world, he is like God.”

John Ruusbroec (1293-1381) in Spiritual Espousals (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985) 60-61.

“Giving is not for God’s benefit, but for our own…God knows that the only way to make His people like Himself is to develop in them His own unselfishness. With marvelous patience, therefore, he waits until we, too, learn to give. It is for this reason that he gives so important a place to stewardship as the primary process of transforming [people] into His likeness…

In this process, giving is made an acid test of character. Of all the grace, giving is that which is likest God within the soul. How is it possible to be truly godlike without learning to give like God who is always giving? What better evidence could there be of genuine Christlike living than that of generous godlike giving?

…In bringing up his human family, knowing so well what is in man, the Father has provided, in the grace of giving, a divine antidote for human selfishness. Only the spirit of God can eradicate this root sin and make to grow in human hearts the love which buds into beneficence. This takes time.”

David McConaughy, Money the Acid Test (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1919) 94-96.

“The church needs to do a better job talking about money. And in order to do this, the church might want to consider talking a lot less about giving…Another way to come at this issue is to say that the church has been trying to send one message (such as “vibrant faith always bubbles over in generous sharing”), but the culture has been receiving a different message (such as, “give us your money, we want it”). This is about weighing explicit versus implicit content, about the denotative meaning of our preaching versus connotative meaning. And the message is: church leaders mainly tend to talk about money when we want to get it out of someone else’s pockets and into our own.”

Rolf A. Jacobsen in Rethinking Stewardship: Our Culture, Our Theology, Our Practices, ed. Frederick J. Gaiser (St. Paul, MN: Word & World, 2010) 2-3.

“Living simply is of itself a work of art; it is beautiful. Life lived with intentional simplicity radiates calm and order, so even if accomplished for no more than its own sake, it would still be a balm, a salve, to our frantic stressed, over-pressured society. But Gospel simplicity is not for its own sake, but is a way of worship and service.

The purpose of Gospel simplicity is to create the space necessary for us to obey the call of Christ: ‘follow me’. Following Jesus is not just a matter of acquiescence to doctrines, but implies an active transformation of our lives: that is to say, it is not only something we believe (though it starts with that), but also something we do because of what we believe.”

Penelope Wilcock, In Celebration of Simplicity (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2009) 24.