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There's something profoundly liberating about breathing. We do it constantly, unconsciously, naturally—until someone draws our attention to it. Then suddenly, we become aware of each inhale and exhale, each life-giving cycle that sustains us.

What if our spiritual lives could be that natural? What if walking with God could become as instinctive as drawing breath?

This is the invitation of spiritual practices—not as religious checklists or performance metrics, but as rhythms that align our hearts with God's heart. Among these practices, simplicity stands out as particularly counter-cultural and transformative in our modern world.

The Complexity We've Created

The book of Ecclesiastes offers a striking observation: "God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated." These ancient words resonate with uncomfortable accuracy in our contemporary lives. We've taken the straightforward gift of existence and layered it with endless complications—possessions we don't need, status we desperately chase, and anxieties about maintaining appearances.

Simplicity, in contrast, offers freedom. It liberates us from the bondage of duplicity, from the exhausting performance of keeping up with cultural expectations. While complexity breeds anxiety and fear, simplicity brings joy and balance.

What Our Culture Celebrates

Our world has twisted virtues into vices and vices into virtues. Coveting has been rebranded as ambition. Hoarding is called prudence. Greed masquerades as industry. The cultural hero isn't the wealthy person who voluntarily embraces simplicity, but the poor person who claws their way to riches.

Consider the stark reality of wealth inequality: the top 20% of households hold almost 60% of total wealth, while the richest 1% holds nearly as much as the bottom 80% combined. This isn't just about statistics—it's about a fundamental misalignment between how our world operates and how God's kingdom functions.

Contemporary culture lacks both the inward reality and outward lifestyle of true simplicity. We're caught in cycles of acquisition, accumulation, and anxiety.

What Jesus Said About Money and Possessions

Jesus spoke about economics and possessions more than almost any other social issue. His words cut through our comfortable rationalizations:

"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money."

He didn't mince words. He told his followers to sell their possessions and give to those in need. He warned that life isn't measured by how much we own. He reminded us that wherever our treasure is, there our hearts will also be.

To the rich young ruler, Jesus didn't suggest a healthy emotional detachment from possessions—he told him to actually get rid of them. This wasn't about poverty for poverty's sake, but about removing the barriers between our hearts and God's kingdom.

 The Proper Perspective on Possessions

Here's the crucial understanding: God intends for us to have adequate material provision. Simplicity isn't about deprivation or asceticism for its own sake. Rather, it sets possessions in their proper perspective.

The apostle Paul captured this beautifully: "I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."

Simplicity re-orients our lives so we can genuinely enjoy possessions without being destroyed by them. It provides the perspective we need to receive God's provision as a gift—not something we must hoard, but something we can freely share with others.

The Antidote to Anxiety

Jesus offered the most profound teaching on simplicity in Matthew 6. He invites us to consider the birds—free, unfettered, not tied to job descriptions, yet cared for by God. He points to wildflowers that never shop or primp, yet display color and design that surpass the finest human fashion.

His message is clear: "What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving."

Then comes the central principle: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours."

Or even simpler: First things first. Nothing comes before the kingdom of God.

This is about aligning our life rhythms with God's heart rhythm. When we steep our lives in God-reality, God-initiative, and God-provisions, our everyday human concerns find their proper place.

Four Practical Steps Toward Simplicity

Understanding simplicity intellectually is one thing; living it out is another. Here are four practical principles to help translate the inward reality into outward expression:

1. Buy things for their usefulness, not their status. Before making a purchase, ask yourself: "Do I really need this, or why do I believe I need this?" This simple question can reveal the true motivations behind our spending habits.

2. Reject anything producing an addiction. Addictions, by their nature, exist beyond our control. They lead to undisciplined compulsions. While change rarely happens overnight (except through God's miraculous intervention), we can decide daily to seek first the kingdom of God, living simply one day at a time in dependence on divine intervention.

3. Develop a habit of giving things away. De-accumulate. The masses of things we don't need actually complicate our lives. Most of us could give away half our possessions without any real sacrifice. The booming storage facility industry testifies to our problem—we're literally renting spaces to hold stuff we can't fit where we live.

4. Reject anything that breeds oppression of others. This is perhaps the most challenging principle. Our consumption patterns often involve racism, sexism, and nationalism in subtle ways. The color of someone's skin, their sex, or national origin still affects their opportunities and treatment. True simplicity calls us from the desire for wealth so we can break the yoke of oppression.

The Heart of the Matter

Jesus made the connection explicit in Matthew 25: "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me."

When we do these things for those who are overlooked or ignored, we do them for Christ himself.

Living as Natural as Breathing

Spiritual practices are about growth, not checklists. The goal is for our relationship with Jesus to become as natural as breathing—seeking the kingdom and then sharing it with the world, whatever our world looks like: neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, fellow students.

Simplicity isn't deprivation. It's liberation. It's the courage to hold the kingdom of God as the number one priority of our lives. To do so is to discover that in losing our grip on the things of this world, we gain everything that truly matters.

May we find the courage, wisdom, and strength to embrace this beautiful, countercultural practice of simplicity.