Simple.

I was chatting with my best friend and she said that sometimes she really desires to lead a simple life. While she is a very capable business woman, she said that being the woman with the big career is not what she wants. She doesn’t desire to climb the ladder or work the insane hours it requires. Instead, she wants the ability to sit and have her coffee, rather than drinking on the go.
This struck me because this is something I have felt. Something I have contemplated for long hours, hours both on the go, running here and there, and hours that were in fact over an afternoon cup of coffee; one that I drank sitting down.

One thing that strikes me about this chain of thought is that people, I believe wrongly, equate the simple life with someone that doesn’t “get out much.” A life pretty much spent in one place. Might you call it “a country life” or a life without things to attend to. Where we get these ideas is beyond me, for surely we are not getting them from the Bible.

I love the “ladies” that we find in the Proverbs. There is Lady Folly, who most of us know too well, resemble too much, or frequent too often. While she is the one to turn away from, doesn’t our culture tell us she is the beautiful one? And then there is Lady Wisdom, who culturally gets a bad rap and is seen as an old spinster in a black frock with a grey-haired bun on her head. Constantly pointing a finger and looking down her nose at you with beady eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses.

This is a quick tangent, but haven’t you noticed how the devil makes all opposites look attractive? As in, whatever is the opposite of a good thing he makes your flesh go, “I want that” and whatever God calls good he wants to make you think is totally stupid.

So the Proverbs give us ladies, and these ladies have things to say. One thing said that I have always found so counter-world is found in chapter 1, verses 20-22.

“{Lady} Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city  she makes her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?’”

Imagine for a moment the busiest streets you have near your house, or the busiest streets you have seen in cities. What is going on there?
Do you see people running about? Travelling to and fro? Carrying things, buying things? Are they full of their own comings and goings?
And what does Lady Wisdom call those people?
Simple Ones.
And what does she call what they are doing?
Simple Ways.
The Hebrew word used here for "simple" means foolish or naïve.

But isn’t that what our lives look like? Full to the brim with stuff and comings and goings? Isn’t that what is touted as the right way to live, the way that makes you successful?

Remember, though, the devil believes in opposites.

Yes, that is what my life looks like, and I might be taking a gamble here, but I would bet a lot of your lives look like. I think this is what my friend was talking about. Running around doing stupid stuff.

I am no Sherlock Holmes, but in putting two and two together can it not be seen that our lives, the ones full of our own comings and goings, might be foolish? Might be naïve? Isn’t that what the Bible is calling them?

Why?

If this is the simple life, the one the world tells us to have, what is the issue with it?
I haven’t done a huge study on this, but my initial thought is that this lifestyle is the simple, foolish, and naïve one because…..brace yourself….it doesn’t actually accomplish anything.
Not really. And running around frantic doing all sorts of things which don't turn out to actually be anything worthy is stupid.
Most of the time, if we are telling ourselves the truth, it doesn’t do anything we are called to do.

Our hustle and bustle can give us money. Now I am a complete capitalist, I believe in it above all other economic systems, and I believe not only is it the most logical, but the most Biblical. We are called to have JOBS. We are called to EARN our living. Why? Because the Bible says that “if you don’t work, you shall not eat.” So jobs are good. But let’s be honest. Are we working to provide for our family and our futures and our daily NEEDS, or are we working to keep up with the Kardashians? Are you working to be a good steward of the money God has blessed you with; are you working for kingdom purposes? For things that aren’t foolish or naïve?

And I think outside activities are good, but how many of them have any qualitative value? The kind you will get to the end of your life and go, “Yes, that WAS a good way to spend my time”?

What other kinds of runnings-about do we do? Ask yourself who they are to impress. Ask yourself what in the world you hope to accomplish with XYZ and whether or not XYZ needs to be accomplished in the first place, or if it too is just an opposite.

Jesus says that he came “that they may have life and have it to the full.” Some translations will use the word “abundant.” Isn’t it something so God-like that he would be completely counter-cultural? He has called us to a full life, just not a life full of stuff that doesn’t amount to anything.
So what does God value out a life that has lived “full”?

Matthew 22:37-39; Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

John 15:8; This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Ephesians 2:10; For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

II Timothy 4:2; Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

Ephesians 1:17-19; I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

A life full of “running arounds” doing things that have no value—stupid things— is the true “simple” life. Because remember, the Bible says all of that is foolish and naïve. Don’t spend your life on things that don’t matter, wolfies! Don’t lead that kind of simple life! We don’t have that much time. Live for Christ a truly full life. And if it is to be a “comings and goings” life, then we better make sure we are coming and going on things that will get us a welcome homecoming on that day and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”