staying grounded

i wear the same shoes about 340 out of 365 days a year. i like them. they are black loafers that work fine with jeans or dress pants. they do look bad with shorts... so i do sandals on those days. the obvious benefits of this practice are 1. less money spent on shoes, 2. more room in my closet (though i am sure the point of a closet is not so much roominess as usefulness). my soul enjoys a benefit of being a uni-soled individual, that i had not expected... opportunities for integrity. i don't know about you, but even the practice of wearing a different kind of clothing when i step onto the church's campus, creates a stutter for my soul. in intentionally robing differently i tend to connect doxologies, prayers, and theology-speak to that wardrobe (and that place). segmenting my wardrobe also causes me to segment my spirituality at times. when i had attire set aside for such times, i wonder what it is like to practice the way of jesus in my "non set aside" attire. wearing the same shoes keeps me grounded, literally and figuratively. it reminds me that saying amen to Jesus' call to love my enemies on Sunday in my loafers, means living amen to Jesus' call on Monday in my loafers. same shoes, same life. dont misunderstand. i dont think that footwear is the anwer. in fact, what happens when I go home and remove my shoes...have i become someone different. obviously that's not the point. the point is "what keeps our sunday morning rhythms intricately woven into our "way of being" the other 167 hours of our week? how do we stay "integrated" in a way that sees worship as a response to God inside a sanctuary and inside our office...while singing and while having supper, ...in the midst of pews and in the midst of problems. for now i am wearing my shoes...i think they have another year on them at least. happy new year.

simply living

i don't do new years resolutions anymore. it's not that new year's day isn't a significant mile marker for me. in fact, it's my birthday so it really is a "new year" for me. recently i have started having new year values, instead of resolutions. this puts me less into a pass/fail mentality and instead allows my decisions to be guided by the values i choose to focus on for that era. for the past year (and again for the coming year, i am feeling) i have tried to be guided by the following values: health, creativity, friendship, and simplicity. i have tried to allow these to guide items such as my calendar and my christmas wishlist. i have done well in some and not so well in others. i think these values will serve me well for 2009 also. the recent economic conversations are causing me to focus more on simplicity lately. i have begun evaluating my stuff to see where there is too much excess. i have found myself to be busting at the seams in several spots. here are my 2008 attempts at living more simply:

got rid of a ton of books. this was VERY hard for me, the avid reader. however, i realized that i owned several books merely because i thought they made me appear more intelligent, though i would probably never crack them open again. i am now trying to take more trips to the library with my sons, as i've found a big difference between using a library and owning one.

getting rid of all my CDs. hurray for the digital age. i am downloading all my CDs to my ipod and passing along the CDs to others. let me know if you need anything from "Abba" or the "Bee Gees".

we chose to stick with our "0ld" 2005 vehicle. when the lease was up, we deflected our traditional knee-jerk reflex to lease or purchase a new vehicle. we are going to see how many miles we can get on this one, and try not to lose ourselves in pursuit of the very expensive new car smell.

garage sales, charities, and freecycle. someone once said that you shouldn't own anything that isn't useful or beautiful. in this vein my wife has put me up for sale on craigslist. actually, we have begun going through each room in our home and asking "have we touched this in a year", or "are we holding on to this because we THINK we MIGHT need it SOMETIME?" we have had several garage sales, helped out "Hosea Feed the Hungry", Goodwill, and friends and family who need baby/toddler supplies.

trying to become more neighborly. does everyone in our neighborhood need a lawn-mower or a wheel-barrow, or an extension ladder? i am working with the neighborhood association to see if we can share some stuff...mainly because i need to borrow someone else's lawn-mower, wheel barrow, and extension ladder.

how many of these do I need? i have asked myself the question, "will people like me less if I only own 2 pairs of shoes and just interchange them from time to time", or "how many pairs of jeans do I need in order to be a productive member of society?". the answer is pretty low...

this is a journey for me. it will last another year at least. the ironic thing is that i am not really getting rid of stuff as much as I am trading it. in return for my stuff I am getting "space", "peace", "freedom", "time", "thought", and "focus". I think i can find room for those.

i would love to hear how you might be exploring a more simple life lately. what are you and your family doing differently?

here are some websites i've found helpful this past year. feel free to share some that you have found.

http://www.december.com/simple/live/

http://www.simpleliving.net/main/

"live simply so others may simply live" - Mother Teresa