I don’t like to be busy. I’ve grown accustomed to planning my week around our small group meeting on Wednesday evenings and reserving the other evenings for being at home. However, I made myself unreasonably busy this fall -- I started a new job, Parker and I bought a house, and I committed to something almost every evening.
Often on paper, it appears that I have time to do lots of things. However, reality (and my emotions) reveal that I can really only do a few things well each day. It didn’t take long for me to recognize my desperate need for simplicity in my schedule and in my heart.
Richard J. Foster in an article titled, “Four Paradoxes of Christian Simplicity,” writes “ simplicity is both a grace and a discipline. It is a grace because it is given to us by God...At the same time, simplicity is also a discipline because it is something we are called to do. Spiritual disciplines (prayer, meditation, etc.) do not give us simplicity, but they do put us in the place where we can receive it. ”
In essence, cultivating simplicity in any realm of life requires a humble acceptance of our finite human limits and bending our whole selves toward the heart of God.
What better season to start this work of simplicity than Advent? Advent is the four week season preceding Christmas. It is a season defined by waiting and preparation, by anticipation and hope. It is a season to slow down, take stock, and set your face toward Jesus. It is a season where we celebrate the gracious act of an infinite God incarnating as a finite Son of Man, Jesus.
In the Gospel according to Luke, we get to enjoy the longest telling of Jesus’ birth story. Like many birth stories, His includes the moment the mother realizes she is pregnant, an announcement of the conception, the parents preparing a place to welcome the new baby, and a slew of visitors to celebrate. In Luke’s somewhat ordinary and familiar, yet wildly divine narrative of Jesus’ birth, we are reminded that Jesus was born within the limits of humanity.
Before He could ever start His earthly ministry, He had to be carried in Mary’s womb for nine months. Then, He had to grow from an infant to a baby, to a toddler, to a child, and so on. He even had to live under the rule of His earthly parents (Luke 2:41-50). Remember when He stayed in the Temple without telling His parents? Well, they accidentally left Him behind after the Passover festival and had to search Jerusalem to find Him. Luke was sure to note that upon his return to Nazareth, Jesus was obedient to them (Luke 2:51).
In His adulthood, Jesus still lived within the limits of His humanity. Though he knew the heart and the thoughts of the people opposed to Him, He would not forcefully change them. Jesus ate, prayed, walked, and even slept during storms. Of course, we see these utterly human behaviors alongside the wonderful signs He performs. But though He is fully God and fully man, Jesus embraces human limitations in such a way that He is unjustly killed on the cross by the people who claim to know God.
Jesus embraced His human limitations because He knew the purpose He came to fulfill.
While we try to go beyond our human limitations by stuffing our schedule, we may be missing the peace and simplicity that God has invited us to. We may be forgetting that God intends to dwell with us. That we, who God has deemed a little lower than angels, are yet worthy of His grace.
Over the next four weeks, we’ll use Luke’s rendering of Jesus’ conception and birth to lead us into new practices to guide us to deeper simplicity for our minds, mouths, the work of our hands, and the ways we move in the world.
In the comments, share your prayer for this Advent season. What might simplicity look like for you in different aspects of your life?
Hozzászólások