SIMPLY STATED or NOT!!

9/15/09 Whatcha readin’? Folks ask me that all the time and I hesitate to answer because “reading” for me doesn’t necessarily mean a book in its entirety. Just yesterday, I finished book #2 in a “new to me” mystery series, with a historical British setting, about Sherlock Holmes and his soon to be wife. My fellow mystery lovin' reader friend, Tricia, recommended it knowing my penchant for mysteries set in England that I can “mostly read”---meaning sometimes I might skim a little as I get tired. Then I picked up #4 in the “Dearest Dorothy” series, a light and easy read, actually a little hokey at times, for those who are at least in their 6th decade---plus I can relate to the title. So you see how frivolous my book choices can sometimes be, especially at bedtime.

But I began my day with several devotional books and as always at least one or two gave me pause for thought---you know THOTS. Oswald Chamber’s, My Utmost for His Highest dealt with simplicity. The irony of that is I then poured into many, many books in search of “simplicity.” That means I’m reading bits and pieces of them all at once. As a librarian, I can make good use of an index or table of contents to cut right to the chase. Thus, it’s not unusual for me to have a few books going at once, an example of lack of simplicity in my reading tendencies. I tend to clutter up many aspects of my life in the “simple” pursuit of simplicity. You see, simplicity is very complex, at least for me. There’s inner simplicity and outward simplicity and corporate simplicity………..I know all of this because for the last few weeks, Richard Foster has been my “author study.” It was my way of trying to pare down my reading by just focusing on one author. So, stacked beside my bed are Celebration of Discipline (a reread from the 80s), Spiritual Classics, which he edited (52 devotionals by St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Fredrick Buechner, A.W. Tozer, G.K. Chesterton, Thomas More, Martin Luther King, Jr., Amy Carmichael, Milton, Tolstoy, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and more), Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation (a new book which I have just started) The Challenge of the Disciplined Life and Freedom of Simplicity. In Freedom of Simplicity, Foster states “simplicity is not merely a matter of having less stress and more leisure. It is rather an essential spiritual discipline that we must practice for the health of the soul.”

Also “thrown in” with pertinent bookmarks (in my ever growing stack) are Whitneys’ Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed, Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude, Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk and Nouwen’s, Inner Voice of Love along with Anne Graham Lotz’s, The Magnificent Obsession, which I will read in its entirety.

Are you overwhelmed yet by just getting a glimpse of my pursuit of simplicity? You’re probably wondering how I can get to my bed. Or why do I work so hard at the simple stuff?

Taylor Park said it well (9/9/07) when he described “contented simplicity” as godliness---satisfaction from within (my inner being/soul) that comes from knowing who I am in Christ. Nothing else needed! Chambers said it succinctly/simply and that’s where my thoughts began and now end. “Simplicity is the secret of seeing things clearly.” I’ve come full circle and I can see clearly now. If you can’t because I’ve muddled your mind, go to http://www.myutmost.org/

But God…………"The simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3 He must be asking, “Isn’t that simple enough, Dotsy?”

Now that you’ve had a glance at my “spiritual stack” tell me what’s in yours.