Simplicity

When it comes to discipline in our finances I truly believe an attitude of simplicity must come first and foremost. Richard Foster lists simplicity as a spiritual discipline, saying it is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style.

Foster says, "We crave things we neither need nor enjoy...we are made to feel ashamed to wear clothes or drive cars until they are worn out. The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time to awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick." Pg. 80 Celebration of Discipline.

We would all agree that the American Dream is becoming an American Financial Nightmare. To buy more stuff and better cars and bigger houses is creating so much stress and unhappiness on us all. We have to step back and look at ancient ideas like simplicity and discipline with a fresh perspective.

Simplicity is about ownership- who owns your stuff, or maybe better put- "Who owns you?"
If I own everything then I deserve more and more and am never satisfied. But if i can truly embrace the idea that God owns everything even my most prized possessions (my wife and kids), then I will be a better steward. Because we are all better at stewardship than ownership, because the idea being a stewards connects us to Eden and our creation. The idea of ownership connects us to our Fall.