#livewithless

The new year has been BUSY.  So busy that I have not had time to come back to this since I posted last November.

The irony being that I intentionally scheduled NOTHING for the month of January.  We took a break from classes, volunteering, and I worked on my need to "say yes" to everything.  Going into February we did a few scheduled things, but life, at the pace it goes, just kept coming at us, day by day.  Finally March did just as it's name says, it M...A...R...C...H...E...D us forward to Easter.  This pace is too much.  My children are growing older, the days keep passing, and what I noticed, as I picked up books I had reserved in February from the library,  I have a theme.

In every part of my being, I am searching for simplicity, for less of all of this consumer driven crazy, for less stuff.  In fact, the majority of my first Facebook posts of the New Year have been dealing with just such truth #livewithless

An yet, I ended up with this
 It is a physical picture of how I have been feeling, how I have been reacting to life and it's decisions.  This physical clutter is a representation of all the ideas, thoughts, and emotions left unchecked, and undecided.  I have been carrying it around on my in my head and my body too.  This year has brought a weight gain I am not proud of.  It has brought up the idea of good choices, of discipline, of doing the hard things first.  It has fostered discontentment. 

Instead of seeing the freedom offered in Christ, the grace offered through salvation, and the joy in Jesus, I have been filtering it all through mess.  Thankfully, Easter was yesterday.  The grave was overcome!  The gift of my eternity was purchased!  I DO NOT have to see life on the other side of the mess, Jesus paid it all, he removed the mess, he took away the clutter, and he tells me, tells you, tells us all AGAPE.  He loves us:  no clutter, no hidden agenda, just where we are.  We can come as we are to the throne of grace: trusting Him with our eternity, and our EVERY DAY.  

So as I crave this simplicity I am reminded of the verse Luke 10: 41-42

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

He wants ONE THING from me.  
.................Just one.

And, with the help of a dear friend, I was able to clear the  physical clutter.  I invited her into my mess (just as I have done with other friends this year), and without judgement, she (they have) helped me clear the space.  She reminded me of the end goal, and she kept me focused when I wanted to open another box or keep something else.  In the end we ended up with this: 


  While yesterday it was only one friend, this year has been a consistent reminder that God provides for all I need, through His word, through my friends, through a church community.  I am blessed.  I am humbled.  I am reminded: he came to give LIFE and give life TO THE FULL.  I do not need stuff, I will continue to purge all this stuff we have accumulated, because I will pursue the ONE THING he wants from me.  

I will struggle, I will succeed, I will have to remember not to "pick up" what I have laid at his feet; and surely, 
I will laugh along the way.

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