S of D and Aside from Rights

Philippians 2:6-8
"Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross."

What do you take from this passage?  Share your feedback with comments.

I can't help but think about the rights and privileges we strive to achieve in our own culture.  Is it time to lay aside our rights and simply live to love, to think of others better than ourselves?

Philippians 2:3-4 "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."

Come to Senses

I like things to make sense.  I can talk about my plans or my dreams, and I make them make sense, because if they did not make sense then I would not know where to begin in obtaining those dreams.  As a reader, you probably already know where this is going...God does not always make sense.  Yes, I agree.  But God makes it clear, in many ways, that He is not going to make sense.  One example, for me, is through the story of the man who wanted to follow Jesus but decided he did not want to give up all that he owned materially (Matthew 19:20-22).  Does that make sense?  Why, with God being so powerful and mighty, would God need someone else's things, or ask someone to give up those possessions?

These are my thoughts.  God does not need them; God wants to be acknowledged as the prize, or the all you need in life.  We are not to live the day to day life to gather up more things, in fact, in the Old Testament it speaks of the forbidding to simply gather up tomorrow's food today (Exodus 16:15-21, 23-31)  I can not imagine having to live each day as it comes in our culture today. I mean, in some cases, we buy food a year before it gets eaten, what would we do if we were given an instruction like that in Exodus?  We buy meals that come in boxes and take less than 5 minutes to both prepare and eat...take the box out of the freezer at noon and be out the door for work at 12:05.

So how are we to live in today's material world?  I believe the biggest issue within our society today is that we lose sight of God when we consume, not because consuming is a sin, but because when was the last time we had to "rely" on God, ask Him for our daily bread, or seek Him as a Grand-Prize.  When was the last time we intertwined God the spirit with God the physical?  When we consume, we begin to live upon our own understanding, our own abilities, and our own things.  We have instant access to our phones, entertainment, transportation, you name it, but we struggle as a whole to uplift and glorify the Almighty with prayer, loving our enemies, helping the homeless, etc.  We gather up our things, stalk up on food, and still worry about the next day, or complain about how busy our lives are and make it seem impossible to eat a nice meal with our families.

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."

Do we have so much that we forget to lean not on our own understanding.  Maybe we were not given the freedom to make things make sense.

S of D

Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

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.”

S of D

Colossians 4:5 "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity."

Too Late? and S of D

Can you relate to the "down times"?  When things aren't going the way you'd like, or when you're aware of mistakes you've made but don't have the courage to fix it?  How do those "down times" ever get better?  Is it simply a matter a time when things start turning around, implying it's a waiting game, or can we actually control, influence, or have a say in our lives?

Let's inspire each other...

It's not what you did, it's what you're going to do!

"Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess." - Philippians 2:11

...it's not too late...

S of D

Proverbs 30:7-9
"Oh God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die.  First, help me never to tell a lie.  Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!  Give me just enough to satisfy my needs."

Scripture of the Day

Matthew 5:14-16

"You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.  Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."