View of Simplicity / S of D

Simplicity is a difficult concept.  It’s not easy to define, nor is it easy to implement, which is ironic given the term “simple”.  So when attempting to answer what it looks like to ‘live simply’, as Jenny and I would say we’re attempting to do, it challenges us to look at every aspect of daily life. 

For starters, back in the states we’ve shopped to buy the cheapest stuff (ie cheap rugs, cheap sheets, cheap plates, cheap food, etc), so we’d save money.  But then we ended up having more money to buy more stuff.  Make sense?  But in reality, we could have gotten by without buying ‘everything’.  We could have put more money into the quality of the items, and been more concerned about where and how the items were made (especially food and textiles), because in reality, buying cheap ‘stuff’ probably means that we’re treating people and the earth “cheaply”. 

Instead of buying a bunch of cheap stuff, we could have identified our needs and searched only for those things.  Our needs are simple, our wants are complicated…because when we develop so many wants, it forces us to do so much more to acquire them (such as work 80 hour work weeks, etc).

So, now, here in Guatemala, we have an opportunity to ‘live with less’, and we hope to learn how we can maintain that simplicity in our own culture within the States further down the road in time.  We don’t need all the accessories or the technologies to get by here in Guatemala.

We have the opportunity to not need a fancy phone, for example, where in the past I had access to look at all sports scores or read all emails signaled by a blinking light…meaning a blinking light often controlled my day, and I didn’t know how to get by without it.  Here in Guate, if someone has a high-tech phone like that then they’re essentially putting themselves at risk because the phones are so outrageously expensive that it’s likely that someone would rob you if you had it.

But simplicity is beyond those physical aspects.  Simplicity is being content with less or overjoyed with the community, rather than with the “features”.  We understand that in order to achieve simplicity that it doesn’t require moving outside of the U.S., but we were presented with a passion and an opportunity that we are grateful for that could stretch us, challenge us, and strengthen us.

Our verse for simplicity is found in the book of Philippians.

Philippians 4:12 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” Verse 13 “I can do anything through Him who gives me strength.”