Living Simply...a Blessed Life

We know the sayings, "less is more" and "bigger isn't always better" yet how often do most of us really live that way? A few years ago God blessed me and my roommates with a huge house. We had prayed for each item in it, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a finished basement, a bathtub. You name it, we had asked for it. We had asked for comfort for ourselves, but also a nice place to share with others. The house we found fit our requests down to the very details and more. The more was that I could walk to work, which most of the time really ended up meaning that I could sleep in a little later and drive to work in just a few minutes. The years in that house were truly blessed.

About a month ago I moved. Though the new house was very nice and I was grateful for the provision of a place to live, it seemed like a downgrade after being so "blessed" before. I would have to drive a lot further, my room would be smaller, and my total living space would shrink at least by half. I rationalized that I had been spoiled before and now I would simply be going back to normal life, but perhaps less blessed.

But God is reminding me of the simple things...like being able to finish the house cleaning in under 30 minutes, so there's more time for friends and fun. Driving 15 or 20 minutes to work each day, so there's more time to reflect and pray and oh yeah, wake up. Living simply is giving me less physical space, but it's amazing how life seems to have opened up more.

Afterall it wasn't really the house that was the blessing before anyway, it was the time spent building relationships in that place. It turns out people still like to visit and hang out in a smaller house and it could be that I am actually more at home with this simpler life, this blessed life, too!

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matthew 6:33