simplicity

the past couple of years i have been wrestling with this idea of living simply. i feel like i'm a pretty plain type of person...extravagance just isn't all that appealing to me. i've always been that way. and yet, when forced to think about my life, i've realized how extravagant i truly am. maybe it's not extravagance in the way i've always thought of it...indulgence, lavishness, ostentation...but more like excess, extra, nonessential.
i have been challenged by the life of jesus over these last few years. the everyday life of jesus: the things he did, the people he hung out with, the way he spent his time, the things he possessed, the way he loved and showed care for everyone. if i'm honest with myself (which i don't like to do too often because i realize how human i am), my life doesn't look too much like that. i do all the things "good christians" are supposed to do, but my life doesn't look like jesus' life. and looking like jesus is way more important, isn't it? jesus didn't even have a place to lay his head. who knows if he had much more than the clothes on his back. why do i have so much?
i worry a lot more than i'd like you to believe about "needing" a bigger vehicle for my family, a bigger house because of "this" and "that", more money to make all of that happen. and yet, i have a house to live in. i have a car that gets us where we need to go. i have money to make all of that happen.
this has really been on my mind the last few days because of the flooding in nashville. which then made me think about all of the other natural disasters that have taken place over the last few years. which then made me think about the people who don't even have a home to be destroyed because they have nothing. all of which leads me to this: why am i so selfish? why do i have this little creeping desire to have something better or something more? why is simplicity so difficult?
jesus lived a very simple life. notice i didn't say that jesus lived an easy life. i don't think his life was very easy at all. and i don't think he calls us to an easy life, but i do think he calls us to a life of simplicity. i think of the early church...that very first group of christ followers that we read about in acts. no one had more than they needed. and everyone had enough. and if someone had more than they needed, they gave it to someone that didn't have enough. what a simplistic life! in all honesty, i think i would worry WAY less if my life looked like that. i mean, it seems the more we have the more we worry about, right?
so even though i may not be over-the-top or outrageous, i absolutely have more than i need. this culture tells me there is nothing wrong with that, but jesus' life says something different. and so i strive to live a life of simplicity. i fail miserably most of the time but jesus just won't let me forget to keep trying.