In writing on topics like simple living, it is tempting to focus on theory rather than application. Theories can be made tidy and precise, whereas applications are messy and inexact. Theories are abstract things to be pondered, and therefore impersonal; applications are concrete things to be put into practice, and therefore very personal. Theories just sort of sit there for you to admire, while applications cry out: if I am true, then why aren’t you doing a better job of putting me into practice?
I’ve written enough about the principles of simple living that people will occasionally ask me how to put the principles into practice, i.e. how exactly do you go about living the simple life? The easy (and useless) response is to say that it depends—on your circumstances, your background, your inclinations, your obligations. Take all that plus those principles and my best wishes, and see if you can figure it out for yourself.
A more useful response would be to give an example of a specific person trying to figure it out, but the only example I’m qualified to write about at length is our own. And our own experiences with living the simple life are a hodgepodge. Some things we’ve tried have been helpful, some have been useless, some are still beyond us, some have finally clicked after years of trying, some we have yet to learn about. I can’t offer our example as one to emulate, since I don’t think we’re particularly close to living the simple life yet, and so I don’t know that the path we’re following is a good one. But I’m obliged to offer our example as one that others might learn from—even if what they learn is, “This ain’t it.”
I keep referring to “the simple life” rather than “a simpler life” because I think we are talking about a goal rather than an improvement, a specific way of life that should be pursued rather than a collection of techniques that can enhance another way of life. Simplification is not something to pursue for its own sake, but only because it moves you along the path to the goal. A specific simplification might actually be a step backwards, e.g. moving to the country is on the whole a bad thing if increases time spent in the car for the sake of commuting, running errands, and carting kids to activities.
I keep referring to “the simple life” rather than “the good life” because I think that complex living is a recent innovation that has not only hampered our ability to live the good life, it has confused us about what the good life is. It may be that there are other things besides complexity that must be dealt with before the good life can be obtained, but I think it is necessary to first strip away complexity so that we can once again think clearly about these matters.
My concept of the good life is simple. It is a life devoted to raising our families, living in community, and worshiping God. An activity that contributes to those three things is to be welcomed; an activity that detracts from those three things is to be questioned. As we declutter our lives by eliminating questionable activities, they will become both simpler and better.
This post is a general introduction to a series of specific posts I plan to make on how we’ve pursued the simple life. But don’t miss the specific test implicit in the previous paragraph. Whenever we are pondering something we do, or something we may start doing, we try to ask ourselves three questions: Will it help us to raise our family? Will it help us to live in community? Will it help us to worship God?
