Rich Simplicity

November 14, 2018

DAILY READING

1 Timothy 6:1-10
This weekend’s reading: Luke 21:1-4

FIELD NOTES

“A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.”

I headed to the closet to count my shoes… over 40 pairs.  We all know a woman needs more shoes than a man…one low heeled black pair; one casual black/brown loafer pair; one high heeled, black dress pump pair; one sparkly black party pair and so on and so on.  How many pairs am I no longer wearing? Do you remember having one pair of shoes for school and one pair for church? Have I lost my mind? Or am I caught in not watching what I am doing? Just adding to without using what I already have. How much money did I spend that could have been put to another purpose? And the really humiliating thing is that God sees my closet! My ‘stewardship’ is definitely skewed!

But being myself before God is what calls me to take an honest look in my closet…and in any other place or at anyway I am not being mindful that EVERYTHING is a gift.  Now being a professed ‘shoe’ glutton, how many pairs can I give away by the end of the week?  This bit of lightness has a serious underbelly.  The question of how we view and use our resources is foundational to Christians.

Hopefully, Mr. Wesley can straighten me out!

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
― John Wesley

QUESTIONS FROM THE FIELD