Living Simply

It was Friday morning and Joan was in the Church Office so I asked her, “What would you say about Living Simply as a practice of Christian faith. She said in her very concise and perceptive way, “Get your priorities in the right order.” That’s about right, isn’t it? But what are the right priorities? That week an insurance company had released a report on well-being or happiness around Australia. If happiness is a measure of whether we have our priorities right, then it was a very revealing study. It said that the major priority in a capitalistic society, which is making and managing money, does not bring happiness. The very, very rich claimed to be happy and so did the poor. It was those in the middle who are called aspirational, who were most unhappy. The reason seems to be that they are not rich, but they believe they could be, or even maybe, should be. It appears that envy is a great contributor to unhappiness. On the other hand those who generally accept their lot, are not too physically crowded or have the beauty of creation around them, feel the support of a community, have hospitable relationships with those around them, feel happy. All this looks very like our list of Christian practices so far, doesn’t it? I want to suggest that this is also very close to what Living Simply means. It comes from a sense of connectedness to the earth, to people and to self. To get this right it is also necessary to have a deep connectedness to God who is the architect. That’s what the practice of Living Simply is all about. It is recognising that God has created us to live in a respectful, valuing balance with all that is. Thus it is about appreciation and not competition, caring, not destroying, worship not self importance.

Adrian