Playing little games

Tomorrow I preach on the discipline of simplicity.  I've defined simplicity as “Living life for what is most important, refusing to let the accumulation of the unimportant distract us from God’s call.” Once again I have been forced to think through the stuff of my life and how what I have shapes who I am, often whether I realize it or not.  I don't know who wrote this...but they said something worth saying.  

Some men die by shrapnel;

Some go down in flames.

But most men perish inch by inch

Playing little games.

In different words Thoreau said something similiar..

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

It seems that there is only so much mental head space in my life and once I have filled it there is no room left for the voice of God.  The goal has to be to clear the way, to open up space for God to speak. And that has serious implications for the choices I make from day to day.

My hope for you this week-end is that you take the time to think through your own life...reflecting how you can simplify your life and thus make space for God to speak clearly to you.