What does it mean to live simply?
Someone asked me this question recently, and they asked it quite earnestly: “Like really, what does it mean? Does it mean to live without a lot of stuff? Does it mean live life less busy?”
What a hard question to answer! Especially since there are many ways people live simply.
I didn’t have a well crafted answer then. And, truth be told, I’m still figuring it out now.
But these words from Richard Rohr seem to be a window into the answer.
What if living simply is recognizing and owning our smallness and ordinariness.
Richard Rohr goes onto say: “Such freedom is my best description of Christian maturity, because once you know that your “I” is great and one with God, you can ironically be quite content with a small and ordinary “I.” No grandstanding is necessary..”
So I’m trying this definition on for size this morning:
?To live simply is to be content with a small and ordinary “I”.
?To live simply is to be content being yourself.
I especially love his last line: “Any question of your own importance or dignity has already been resolved once and all forever.”
Maybe part of the quest many of us feel somewhere deep down to live simply is really rooted in a desire to be more unapologetically ourselves.
Maybe it’s about not affirming our importance or our worth with more but being content that God created each of us out of love…
and that we are enough,
just as we are.
