Changing, growing…seeking!

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” ~ Hans Hofmann

“Hey!” Kendall walked into the kitchen. It was the twinkle in her eyes more than her excited tone that captured my attention. “Can you come here for a minute?”

I dried my hands on a towel and then followed her into the living room. She walked to the hutch which now housed the collection of salt and pepper shakers I had inherited from my grandmother. I thought for sure she must have more questions about them. She reached one tiny hand out but – instead of fingering one of the sets in fascination like she had earlier – she pointed to the round tin with the letters S I M P L I F Y stenciled on the side that sat tucked out of the way on the bottom shelf.

“Did you know – ” Her voice lowered to a bare hush “- that there’s change in there?”

I did know, but often forgot.

I had picked up the tin at a little store in Jefferson last year during our annual cousins trip. Mike and I had just entered Phase I of our “Big Adventure” and the message on this can was a ready reminder that everything we might be sacrificing in the short term was going to pay large dividends in the long term.

We placed it on this shelf and had gotten into the habit of dropping all of our spare change into it. A few quarters here, the occasional dime found in the sofa or dryer, and the bevy of pennies which never fail to accumulate in the change holder of my pocketbook.

Over the course of many months it had become quite a nice change cache. One that we rarely thought about, except when dropping in that weeks’ collection. But for a curious six-year old…well, she thought she’d just hit some serious pay dirt.

Kendall’s words still linger with me – even now, almost a full year later.

There’s change in here.

The irony isn’t lost to me.

Mike and I have made a very deliberate choice to live the simple life. Not just A simple life, but THE simple life. Making daily choices that bring us closer to our ultimate goal. This exists for us in the physical and in the spiritual.

Physically, we’re working toward a place we want to create for us and for our families. A place that will be the legacy we hand down to our kids, and watch their kids enjoy it as well. It’s where we’ll gather for holiday dinners, where we’ll gather for much-needed recuperation, and it is especially where we’ll meet to slow down the busyness that is this life and savor the small things. This is the place where we plan to grow old together, sipping early morning coffee on a back deck and hosting large, loud family weekend dinners in our outdoor living area. It will be the hub of happiness and hope, where love is the constant that bonds us all.

But this place of simplicity is also a real place in our hearts. A destination that we both seek with hungry hearts and thirsty spirits. It is the place of sanctity and rejuenvation that we find when we draw close to the Master, when we seek and find His will for our lives. It is in these moments that I breathe the most deeply, drawing in all that is REAL, all that is TRUE. Complications melt away, worries are abated, and my heart undergoes much needed change.

The plan is in place, physically and spiritually,  and we’re taking daily, constant steps that are drawing us closer and closer to this exciting, ultimate goal. But sometimes – in the midst of THE RIGHT NOW – when the issues of work and the busyness and craziness that come with our schedules rears up…I forget.

I forget that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I forget that life really is simple, and that it is us who insist on making it complicated.

I forget that we will  have succeeded in life when all we really want is only what we really need.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12 KJV)

There is change in here!

I know this, and don’t want to forget. This morning it is fresh on my mind and newly imprinted on my heart.

Change resides in simplicity. Simplicity seeks the heart of  Him. That is what I am in pursuit of.

2 Responses to Changing, growing…seeking!
  1. Barbie
    September 24, 2011 | 8:42 pm

    Staci, this is a beautiful post. The Lord has been speaking to me about simplifying. It’s hard to even know where to begin. I want to only pursue Him to fill may heart and be able to leave all the other momentary pleasures in life aside.

  2. JUNE
    September 26, 2011 | 6:30 am

    Greatly put, our world today is too full of greed, and people whom only think about me, me, me. I really do not know where so many went wrong. I can say I feel at peace, and enjoy my life to the fullest. Thanks to my Lord and savior.