THE SIMPLE LIFE

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Some synonyms for simple are:

• unadorned
• unaffected
• free from deceit
• unpretentious
• uncomplicated
• plain living 

A SIMPLE LIFE MAKES THE WORLD A MORE PEACEFUL PLACE

     But the simple life is not about me and what I want. It is a way of making the world work in a peaceful way and of  rightly sharing  the world's resources.

     One thing that the simple life is not is nostalgia for the past. Whatever I am doing about the simple life should have meaning right now.

     I've never talked to a Quaker who didn't think that they were living a simple life. The idea of what constitutes this life varies from person to person. In the house of one Friend I may sink down in Persian carpets while at the home of another, I sit on an orange crate for a chair.

JOHN WOOLMAN

     The best Quaker example of the simple life is John Woolman, a Quaker who lived about the time of the American Revolution.  He owned a shop where he sold things like shirts, tea and chocolate. However he felt that his shop was just doing too well!! He was making too much money!!

     Business increased every year and it seemed as if the shop was going to grow very large.

     In John's view, people were meant to make enough money for their needs, no more than that.

     If he learned to be a tailor, John believed that he could care for his family. Since he had a small family, he felt that they needed less. So he closed his shop and earned his living as a tailor and by operating a nursery selling apple trees.

     He learned to be content with a plain way of living and having real conveniences that did not cost so much. He didn't want anything that was just showy. (I don't know how his wife and daughter felt about this.) He did not want to become deeply involved in making money. Then there would be time to do what God wanted him to do with his life.

     John believed in a providential God, One who had a plan for his life; he tried to understand this plan and live it.

     Woolman's is one extremely admirable way of living the simple life.  In our own times and circumstances there are many others.

ABUNDANCE MAKES SIMPLICITY POSSIBLE

     The choice to live a simple life is really a luxury. It is a great and wonderful gift to be able to choose. Only because I have way too much can I chose to live with less. Many people have a life of poverty. This really isn't a choice; it rarely is a simple life. Abundance makes the choice of simplicity possible.

     For the simple life to work I must be committed to loving God, putting Him first in my life. Then I must have an unselfish single mindedness to love and serve Him and serve others.