simplifying

I'm clearing out some clutter. Dusting off some shelves and then selling those shelves. Donating clothes, books, an old waffle iron. Garage sale scheduled this Saturday at Eden's house (postponed from last weekend due to the storms). It's so refreshing. It's so freeing to de-junk, and to let go of things. Like all my psychology/therapy books from grad school.  It's a bit hard. (I am a pack-rat by nature...or maybe it's nurture?). But let's be honest, if I haven't re-read them in the past 8 years, it's not looking like I'm gonna do it in the next 8. 

Speaking of 8, Nathan and I have been going through the book 7 this year.  Though we have rather slacked off last month (focusing on waste and eliminating our 'carbon footprint',  because it matters that we take care of this Earth that God gave us), and haven't exactly even talked about this month (spending/shopping: the focus on spending money in just 7 places for the entire month), it's been an excellent exercise in shedding excess and learning to be content. The book, by my favorite author Jen Hatmaker, is written almost in journal form. It's an easy, though convicting and compelling read focusing a lot on our culture's obsesssion/comfort with excess. The subtitle is: an experimental mutiny against excess. Each of the 7 months focuses on one area of excess: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, shopping, and stress. Each month she does a type of fast (so for food, she only eats 7 foods for the whole month, for clothes she wears only 7 articles of clothing for the whole month, etc).  Although wearing only 7 articles of clothing was rather inconvenient, it wasn't bad.  In fact, it simplified things tremendously.  Same w/ food month. Same with media month, and so on.  Not having SO MANY CHOICES was crazy nice. It's LIBERATING. FREEING. WONDERFUL to unload and flush out these habits that are not what i need to be focusing on. It's brought a lot to the surface for me, mostly that I need a lot less to be content.  And that no matter what I do or don't have, I can be content!!  I don't need the sexy lies that the culture places before me of what I need to be "happy", "satisfied", "fulfilled."

Which brings me back to my garage sale. There are a few books I'm not yet ready to sell. One is an old book I picked up at an antique book store with my mom in high school, with some poems by Henry David Thoreau. I loved learning about him, and his non-conformer self. In fact, I remember thinking in high school that I too wanted to be a non-conformer. My quote my senior year in the year book was "only dead fish swim with the current."  Brilliant eh? I got an A on a photo I took in photography that I entitled The Non-Conformer, a red bell pepper in the midst of a display of yellow bell peppers.  So, I don't know. Selling my things, eating only 7 foods for a month or not using the internet or facebook for a month, that doesn't make me too different.  But it does feel like it's a daily determination to go against what is "normal" in our culture. After all, it seems the push is to acquire more, have more, do more, be more, more more more.

I must remember that I am not of this world. I was made for something else. And truly, there is only one thing that I need and that is Jesus (though he is not a 'thing' of course). I will daily be content with what we have and with what we don't. I will love. I will serve. I will give everything away if needed. I just want to be faithful at the end of the day. the end.