Downscaling – Part 9: Readings – 4
A Journey Toward Simplicity: Walter and Virginia Hearn
A few years ago we sensed that God wanted us to do something different with our lives, but we didn’t realize how radical a change it would be.
The competitive professional rat race left us little time to think and write. We had seen what happens to families when a husband spends himself and all his time at a demanding job. Even with two children to support and Ginny’s elderly mother to care for, we felt there must be another way for us. We were willing to trust God and “count the cost” of trying something different, some way of working together in a new kind of life. So we kept careful records and deliberately pared our cost of living down to half our income. By saving the other half, each year on the payroll “bought” us a year to experiment. We stayed two years, then took the plunge and moved to Berkeley.
Our family enterprise (writing and editing) doesn’t support us yet, but we seldom panic. God has been teaching us how much we can do without. He has reinforced our basic decision in various ways, and provided bits of income to keep us in “bread” and hope. We think he intends for us to survive. So now we have made another decision: Whenever we do begin to earn more money, we are resolved not to let our “standard of living” rise along with our income. We are beginning to feel liberated.
Cutting down doesn’t come easy in our society. Possessions have become the measure of everything, even of spiritual worth, and commercial interests control or dominate most channels of communication. What we have done goes against the American grain.
We think that deliberately lowering our standard of living in obedience to God is part of what Jesus meant by being “poor in spirit.” The amazing thing is that the quality of our life seems higher than before.
Of course, we have to beware of the reverse snobbery of spiritual one-upmanship. No matter how little one learns to live on, even that comes at the expense of someone else. What each of us has is a gift, no matter how we stand financially. Greed tempts the poor as well as the rich. Christians need not put down people who are wealthy, wasteful, extravagant or stingy, as long as we don’t follow their ways. God is their judge, and ours. We ought rather to put our energy into being examples of a better way, just as Jesus Christ is ours. Each person must live his or her own life as God leads them. We don’t want to overgeneralize from our experience. Our Father seems to love variety.
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Living More Simply, edited by Ronald J. Sider, InterVarsity Press, pages 73-75.
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?
Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?
David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.
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For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.
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