The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Part three: Practices for unhurrying your life
Simplicity (1|5)
Pages 177-185
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: We are far more emotionally tricked and desire driven than we care to admit) then the following scripture slowly and attentively.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Luke 12:15 (NIV) “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
Luke 12:33 (NIV) “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”
Matthew 6:25 (NIV) “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”
Matthew 6:33 (NIV) “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Mark 4:19 (NIV) “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Matthew 19:24 (NIV) “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
GROUP DISCUSSION:
Jesus talked a lot about simplicity. If we are honest, most of us disagree with or at least dislike some of the things he taught.
Share just one or two things that stood out to you while reading the book and/or scripture. (try to keep it brief)
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
If these sayings of Jesus sound crazy to you, well, you are not alone. They do to most of us in the West. If you’re not on board with Jesus’ view of money, it could be that you, like many Christians in the West, don’t actually believe the gospel of the kingdom. It could be that you believe another gospel. Another vision of what the good life is and how you obtain it. This gospel makes the exact opposite claim - the more you have, the happier you will be.
What is your response to that statement? Does it challenge you, frustrate you, offend you, overwhelm you, convict you?
The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard has made the point that in the Western world, materialism has become the new, dominant system of meaning. He argues atheism hasn’t replaced cultural Christianity; shopping has. We now get our meaning in life from what we consume.
What is your response to that statement?
Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers (a global investment banking company based in America) said: We must shift America from a needs to a desire culture … People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desire must overshadow his needs.
Does that sound like the kingdom of God or secular humanism?
Human beings aren’t nearly as rational or autonomous as we think. We constantly make irrational decisions on what Freud called our “unconscious drives” (similar to what the New Testament calls “the flesh”) We are far more emotionally tricked and desire driven than we care to admit.
What is your response to that statement?
How do we change that?
John 10:14-15 (NIV) “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father —and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
John 10:27-30 (NIV) “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Pause and pray - Be still. Be quiet. Listen for the voice of the good shepherd.
EXTRA READING:
“We should remain within the limits imposed by our basic needs and strive with all our power not to exceed them. For once, we are carried a little beyond these limits in our desire for them. For once we are carried a little beyond these limits in our desire for the pleasures of life, there is then no criterion by which to check our onward movement since no bounds can be set to that which exceeds the necessary.”
- Nilus of Ancyra (unknown - 430)