Live Simply

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you.

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine.

Today we're going to be offering up the challenging action item to Live Simply.

One of the most-watched shows on Netflix this month is the series "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo." Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and best-selling author, whose books have been translated into a dozen different languages and sold all over the world.

Kondo's method of organizing your house is to go room by room through your house, and then to put all your belongings through a test to see whether you really need them or not.  According to Kondo, if an item "sparks joy" (the Japanese word is tokimeku, which means "to flutter" or "palpitate") then you keep it.  If it doesn't, then you let it go.

One of the things that Kondo does when entering a client's home is to first sit in silence with the client and to give thanks for the home.  She also believes that even the items that are discarded because they didn't bring tokimeku should be thanked before they are given away. 

I love the rhythm of her process---alternating between gratitude, and joy.  While I don't agree with her concept of how many books you should own (only 30), I do find such beauty and wisdom in her approach to simplifying one's life. 

Jesus once told his followers: 

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

I wonder what it would be like if we all learned to live simply and to let gratitude and joy guide our relationship with our possessions.   Would we discover that we might not need all of those things that we've acquired?  Would we find ourselves less anxious? 

I've resolved to practice some of Kondo's methods of organization in the coming weeks. But I also want to practice these methods with the words of Jesus imprinted on my heart and guiding my spirit. 

May you do the same as you are able, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.