Yesterday, we saw that we love being simple. Today I’ll tell you what this has looked like for me.
I’m not very handy, partly because I grew up in a family that never owned a home. Whenever something broke, we’d call the landlords. My wife, however, grew up on a 9-acre lot in rural Pennsylvania. They never saw an improvement they didn’t like.
So when we got married, Erin had to persuade me to become a homeowner. She succeeded, and my life has lacked a comfort zone ever since. You see, I’m terrified of the unknown. When we bought our first home, fear gripped my heart so completely that when I went to unpack my office, I didn’t even know what to do. I looked around at all the boxes and got so depressed and overwhelmed by the whole thing that I just lay down on the couch and did nothing. When Erin came downstairs from her own unpacking and saw me lying there, she didn’t buy my excuse that “I didn’t know what to do.” She pointed to a box, said “How ‘bout we start with this one?” and began removing its contents.
The problem was not my upbringing, nor was it my personal preferences. The problem was that I loved being simple. I had never owned or maintained a home, I didn’t want to keep up a home, and I didn’t want to learn how to keep up a home. And I didn’t make those choices based on careful study of Scripture accompanied by Spirit-driven meditation. It’s not that I conscientiously believed renting a home would honor Christ more than owning a home would. No, I simply didn’t want to change. I didn’t want the increased responsibility.
In the end, however, the Bible is not primarily concerned with whether I buy or rent a home. The main thing God wants is for me to trust in Christ and not myself. Whoever believes in Jesus “is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18, ESV). Jesus promised to pour out his Spirit on all who believe in him (John 7:37-39). Do you believe? Will you trust Jesus?
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