“Simplify your life! Have just one God!” – is a journey I am on. When I first published this article back in 2013 on our Northern Homestead blog, I had no idea where it would lead me. However, as we all know, when we commit ourselves to something, life has a way of guiding us. This blog post also made me realize that I needed a separate blog, as mixing homesteading lessons with life lessons wasn’t a good fit. So if you are visiting from my homesteading blog, I want to give you a warm welcome!
It all started with one of my Facebook friends who posted a quote from a pastor’s message that inspired this article:
“Simplify your life! Have just one God!”
Back then, I wrote: I need to grow in understanding these rather huge words. I long for the first part, but I assume it concerns the second part.
Simplify your life
Simplifying is about doing things simply and living a life of simplicity. I like things simple, but what exactly is simple? Simplifying our lives seems to be a hot topic. There are a range of ways to do this. Some buy land and go off-grid, while others build tiny houses and declutter their stuff.
The idea of having fewer bills to pay, less stuff to care for, and becoming more self-reliant is inspiring. People are busy simplifying their lives these days, and this busyness strikes me as remarkable. Does being busy with simplifying truly simplify your life?
I realize that a simple, fulfilled life comes from within. If we are clutter-filled, we will be clutter-filled around us, no matter how much we own. If we are worried and anxious, going off-grid and living self-sufficiently can become a fear-burdened lifestyle. Simplifying our lives has to happen from the inside out.
Have just one God
That leads us to the second phrase: ‘Have just one God.’ Growing up in a Christian family had a profound influence on my worldview. God belonged to our family, just like Grandma and Grandpa. We celebrated Christmas and Easter, and never ate or went to bed without prayer.
As a child, I remember walking through our garden, surrounded by pole beans and potatoes, and talking to God. No one had taught me to do this, but I felt that God was very close and real in that moment. The challenge, however, was that I couldn’t maintain that connection, and it became my greatest desire in life—to truly know God.
As a child, I made a decision that when I grew up, I would attend a Bible college to study the Bible for myself, as that was the only way I knew to get to know God. For decades, I intensely studied the Bible in search of the God I had felt so close to in my childhood.
Going through the challenges of a neurodiverse family, I became devotedly religious, holding on to my beliefs for life. In their straightforward, unfiltered autistic way, my children challenged my beliefs to the core. Doctrines that do not hold much are pretty meaningless to a very logical autistic mind. With their analytical thinking, they make decisions without bias. If it is not tangible, it’s not worth keeping. The concept of one God, as a sole and exclusive being in a multicultural world with many religions, did not satisfy their strong sense of justice.
At first, my children’s comments sounded like blasphemy. However, I learned to listen to what they were saying over the years. Their logical, consistent way of thinking could not be ignored. Besides, my intense religion only complicated our already challenging daily lives. I had to find the truth to simplify our lives.
The One God
Studying the Bible, I could not ignore that the God of the Bible is not one God in numbers, sole and exclusive. He IS One God in unity; there is nothing but God. Please read with me these quotes:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)
You have been shown, in order to know that the Lord He is God; there is none else besides Him. … And you shall know this day and consider it in your heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth below; there is none else. (Deuteronomy 4:35+39)
In the beginning was the Word (Logos=Thought), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. (John 1.1-4)
It is good to know that there is just one God, but it changes everything if this God is One. There is nothing apart from him in heaven above or upon the earth below.
Abide in Him
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4.16).
Being the One Word – Thought, the Source of all life, all is in Him. This Oneness is Love; that’s why God is Love. If we abide in God, we abide in Oneness, and the Oneness, Love, God abides in us. All IS forever Love.
If we see ourselves as separate, we will chase after things that could make us complete. It does not matter if we want more or fewer things. Those are still things, images replacing the reality that life is One because God is One. No matter how much we gain, it will never be enough.
Living ingrained in the awareness of the One God, One Life, One Source, One Love, we are part of it and every aspect of creation. We can do nothing apart from Him because we are never apart, even though we might think so.
Simplifying our lives is a journey. Having One God liberates us from fear. By abiding in Him, we are connected to the Source, the all-powerful stream of life. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’
Trust in God
We can trust in God from this Oneness, abiding in Love. I love how the amplified Bible words a text from the Book of Hebrew:
“Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” (Hebrew 13: 5 amplified Bible)
There is nothing outside of Gott that we need to protect ourselves from. Perfect guidance is available at all times. Our differences and (dis)abilities are like flowers in the garden.
A simple life grows out of character, free from the love of possessions rooted in total trust in God. This simple life shows itself in perfect satisfaction, liberated to love God and people. I want to simplify my life, do you?
The journey is ongoing, and I’m excited to see where we will be ten years from now.
Simplify your life – Abide and trust in the One God!