Showing posts with label living simply. Show all posts
Showing posts with label living simply. Show all posts

Monday, September 28, 2009

How Much Do You Need?



I'm sitting in my office at church surrounded by a couple thousand of my closest friends - my books. Bunny walks in, looks around, and says "you need to sell a bunch of these."

She's right.

And I shouldn't stop there.

I can remember laughing at my mother and father for their depression-era driven fixation with stocks of food. If my mother could help it, we never got down to one of anything when it came to the staples. There was always two of everything. When I asked once, I was told that because there were so many times they had nothing or near nothing to eat, they had sworn it would never happen again.

Well, I don't do it with food, but I do have areas where what I possess makes no rational sense given that I could take the money I'd get for selling some stuff and change the world. Plus I'd love to see the stuff shrink whether by selling it, sharing it, or giving it away to the point where if God sent us a PCS notice, we could be gone quickly.

So I'm going to start tomorrow deciding what I can live without and start the process of converting it into opportunity. Micro-loans, water projects - there's a lot that could happen. Stay tuned and I'll try to give you an update each week of what I've shed.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

But I Waaaaaaaaant it.



sigh...

While I have never been the shopaholic, I do love gadgets. For the most part I can fight off the urge to get the bright shiny toy, and try really hard to make do with less, I still have far too much of that desire to have in me.

All around us are people who are struggling not with wants, but with needs. We were able to help a mom and her kids this week who was living out of her car. New Hope got her a motel room, Bunny washed their clothes, we reached out to organizations that actually knew something about how to get help, and we hope that they are in housing tonight. We don't know because the woman had no phone. Things we take for granted - many people only dream of.

Lord, help me live simply. Help me to see the things you allow me to use as tools to do the work you'd have me do. And help me to help others.