The Blessing of Simplicity — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

Somehow I get the feeling that we make things too complicated. Have you heard the phrase, less is more? I like that. I’ve always tried to break down complicated stories into bite-size stories that are easy to understand. Advertisers, they know this. They’re experts in taking a complex story and breaking it down into an easy 10-second ad. And usually, if it’s done well, we remember that ad sometimes for years.

I think many people crave a simple life, getting away from the craziness of a hectic life, rushing from one appointment to another, draining all our energy until we get to bed exhausted. We’ve never lived in a world at such an advanced stage of development, at least in the Western world. Modern day technology has completely changed.

Less is more

Our lives we need faster internet speeds than ever before. We spend our days and nights on digital devices. We’re addicted to social media, which ironically makes us less social. In this modern world, we’re always pushing to do more and more, and rest is seen as a waste of time, and more and more people are feeling burnt out and depressed. Sometimes it’s a great exercise of de-stressing to go back in time, for example, 1182 into a simple man called Francis.

He was born that year and grew up in the northern Italian city of Assisi. He had a simple faith in God, but his life and writings have impacted millions of people. Francis was raised in a wealthy middle-class family, growing up with luxury all around him, enjoying everything money could buy. His father was a prosperous silk merchant.

And Francis grew up the privileged child of a wealthy family. In 1204, Francis made a pilgrimage to Rome in which he joined the poor who were begging in front of Saint Peter’s – a complete change in his life. Shortly after his return, he was praying in the chapel of San Damiano in the countryside near Assisi.

And Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said, Francis, go and repair my house, which, as you can see, is falling into ruins. And Francis interpreted that as Jesus’s command to repair that chapel, much against his father’s wishes, he did so. He spent the money, and as a result, he lived as a beggar for a number of years. He committed himself to a life of poverty, and he was convinced that God could be found in the simple and mundane things of life.

He gave up his wealth to enjoy life in all its simplicity. It said he only had one set of clothes and had to beg for food. Jesus was his model on how to live and how to behave toward other people. He also delighted in God’s creation. He wrote a prayer praising brother son, sister moon, and the stars, brothers, wind and air, sister water and brother fire. That’s what he called them. Francis viewed the natural world, the plants, the wind, the water, the fire, as part of the human family as our siblings, and he was filled with an infectious joy.

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Francis and his followers loved God and loved life. He felt compelled to reach out to those who had no voice, the rejected and needy. He embraced and assisted lepers and cared for the sick and sent food to prisoners in jail. Today, I guess not many of us are called to a life of poverty of extreme renunciation.

And yet we can learn to be happy with less as we remember that for many people in our world today, poverty is not a choice, and we should support and pray for those who are living in extreme poverty with nothing to eat, nowhere safe to live through no fault of their own.

The theme of being content in life and happy with our situation is one we shouldn’t forget. Contentment has little to do with the outward circumstances, but more to do with our inner attitude. When someone asked a wise man for the secret of happiness, his answer was, Add not to a man’s possessions, but take away from his desires.

Contentment has little to do with the outward circumstances, but more to do with our inner attitude.

Too often we pray, Lord, change my circumstances. Give me more… when we should be praying, Lord, change me, make me more contented with less. And Francis of Assisi left us with a beautiful prayer,

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me so love, where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light and where there is sadness, joy, O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

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