New beginnings

"Whoever is on a journey towards God goes from one beginning to another beginning. Will you be among those who dare to tell themselves: 'Begin again! Leave discouragement behind! Let your soul live!'"

This is a quote I came across today from a guy named Brother Roger of Taize, which I think is a Christian community in France. I like it. I think it describes a bit of what we are doing with this experiment in simplicity. We are "beginning again," trying to "leave discouragement behind," and creating an environment in which "our souls can live."

For those of you just logging on, Laura Hoy and I (and now others!) are engaging in a 30-day experiment in simplicity. Both of us are kind of defining what that will look like for our own families. We are avoiding legalism or judgmentalism ... and any other "isms" that take away from the spirit of this experiment.

The spirit is love. The purpose is love. The end result (we hope) is love -- Love for God, love for neighbor. We hope to find simple ways to fight off the shackles of consumerism and over-consumption in order to free our hearts and lives for love ... for God, and for neighbor.

If you look back at the posts prior to this one, you'll see some of our initial ideas, thoughts, prayers, hopes for this experiment. We'll, of course, be learning as we go. We'll share our thoughts and ideas along the way. We'll share areas of success and failure. We'll share areas where we struggle and areas where we feel free. Others are sharing, too ... and hopefully, we can gain energy, enthusiasm and a sense of community from one another.

Right now, the Shirey family is in a purging stage. We've just had a huge 10-day celebration with family and food ... and we are full; full of food, full of gifts, full of family, full of joy. But, we also feel a bit "over full" and so this is a perfect time to clean out, clear out, pull out and give away! I'd imagine this stage will last for a few days ...

We are also hoping to take complete inventory of our fridge, freezer and pantry ... and will try to eat what we have, as opposed to going out to buy more just because we "feel" like eating something we don't have. Our hope is that we can save signficantly in the grocery arena ... and then use that money to further God's Kingdom in some way.

One of our favorite organizations is called International Justice Mission (www.IJM.org). We give to them on an annual basis. They are a Christian legal organization that operates around the world. Their main purpose is to rescue people from bonded slavery and forced prostitution and then to both prosecute the oppressors AND place the newly freed people into Christian aftercare, where they are introduced to Jesus and offered a new way of life. According to IJM, $500 can free one human being from bonded slavery or forced prostitution! What a thought ... a little intentionality with the way we eat, and we can save one person from a life of slavery, introduce them to Jesus and set them free to help bring about the Kingdom of Jesus. That is probably where our "extra" money will go this month.

Those are my plans for now.

What are others of you planning (hoping?) to do? I'm curious.

alice