Simplifying Life
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Several years ago, toward the end of winter, our daughter said, “It is now time to simplify!” She had a house ready for us to move into.
At the time, my husband was seventy-two, and I was two years short of seventy. We graciously accepted her offer and listed our house for sale.
It did not take long for depression to overtake me at the thought of having to leave my flower garden, fruit trees, and the elegant home where we had raised our children. It had been home for twenty-six years! One morning at breakfast, I sat facing the window and saw the peach trees in full bloom. The magnolia trees were sprouting their buds and would soon be filled with flowers. Immediately, I said, “Thank You, Lord, for here I am feeling depressed as I look back, but You are giving me a better hope for the future.” Ellen White writes, “It is now that our brethren should be cutting down their possessions instead of increasing them.”* We should rather stop clinging and be joyful. Letting go is the answer. In truth, simplifying our lives is a form of spiritual cleansing. It softens the heart with gratitude, helps with being sensitive to the needs of others, and makes the world a better place. God’s Word, our standard for truth, admonishes us, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19–21, KJV).
And King Solomon wisely counsels, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV). Now is the time to simplify.
Let us let go of our many possessions—and cling to Jesus instead and to the promise He gives us of a better hope for the future!
Edna Bacate Domingo
* Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship (Washington, DC: Review and Herald®, 1940), 59.
