A Call to Simplicity

We all go through something like this in life. Days get hectic, busy, filled with meetings, tasks, voicemail, hobbies, friends, bills, cleaning, traveling, sorting, piling, delays... And our automatic responses snap instantly into survival mode. And then we live there, in survival, for days, weeks, months (and in my history, years).


The past few weeks, I've been there, surviving, holding on for dear life while things spiral out of control. The voicemail light remains on; the email inbox hosts over 100 waiting notes, attachments, and responses; the piles on my desk have flowed seamlessly onto the floor, the window sill, every chair, and shelf; I have new initiatives and committees and programs coming out of my ears; there are papers to grade, assignments to create, and much work to be done in my classroom; and to top it all off, my house, my one precious, quiet little sanctuary and escape, is a sty.

Out of all this chaos and noise, this week, my heart has been gripped with one clear message - Simplify.

I have no doubt that this message is God's very voice calling out to me through the cacophony of activity flurrying around me. It's a call to, once again, make a conscious effort to change the very foundation of how I operate on a daily basis. I've been here before. Sometimes the message is Slow down. And sometimes it's Shed something. And other times it has even been Just sing. But today, the message is Simplify. And I am so very ready to do this.

I'm not sure, as of now, how I will be applying the idea of simplicity to my life, but something tells me that if I change my focus, the answers will come. In truth, I need to focus on one thing - God. That's the end-all be-all of it. I'm also being led back to focusing on relationships and my purpose in life, the very reason God created me. Again, I am not sure how to apply these focuses, but I know that God is preparing my heart for something through all of this, readying me for something that chaos would not allow. I'm excited for what lies ahead, but as of today, it starts with simplicity.