NieuCommunities

In this same spirit of expectation and anxiety, we gathered together the last Tuesday of July 2009 to explore where the Spirit may be leading our community to embrace simplifying our lives, both in corporate sacrifice and individual expression.  Through a wonderful process of several hours spent in conversation, personal sharing about where this point in the apprenticeship year found us, as well as where we sensed God leading us to move forward in simplification, we brainstormed this process on the whiteboard that you see in the photos accompanying this post.  It was a powerful time of reflection on one of the more transformative disciplines Foster describes in his book. Especially powerful were these quotes, as shown in the photos:

• “Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you”
• “To conform to a rich world is to be sick”
• “Enjoy things without owning them”

After a few days spent contemplating where we were to sacrifice, we settled on two corporate practices that would shape our month:

• Seeking to live on 1/2 of our disposable income (which could be defined as anything from the entirety of our monthly paychecks, to the amount left over after ‘critical’ bills).
• Ruthlessly seeking to simplify our possessions by establishing a communal ‘Chest of Give & Take’ where we would place unused items for others to enjoy.

Individually, I (Chris Kamalski) decided to seek to practice the following Rhythms:

• Weekly slowing through engaging the discipline of Sabbath Rest in a more ‘focused’ manner than I normally do, using Sundays as a day to disengage, slow down, and seek to ‘not achieve’ anything productive.  Very, very hard, but incredibly needed.
• Cutting my own internet usage by 1/2 throughout the month.  Given the fact that most of us use the internet as the primary means of communication with our worlds ‘back home,’ this is surprisingly difficult.  Yet powerfully needed to break the addiction of thinking I must remain in communication ‘online’ at all times.

Almost immediately upon the  calendar turning the page to August 1, simplicity became incredibly difficult.  Most of our community experienced a deep flu/cold/cough virus that lasted at minimum 2 weeks for each person, and simply took us out at various times. Cars broke down.  Visitors came through and needed to be hosted with graciousness, not frugality.  To a person in our community, we realized that ‘simplicity is definitely not simple.’  And yet our desire to strip ourselves of what truly mattered remained.  We banded together, sharing food and seeking to go without what we needed (and especially what we wanted) throughout this month.  We began to realize that even attempting the corporate practice of this discipline was powerful and shaping in our failed attempts at it.  Again, I came away with the understanding that engaging a shared practice with an openness of spirit is key towards a true allowing of the Spirit to transform our lives.

And what do you know?  By the end of a difficult month, we pooled our shared Rand together, and found that we collectively had raised R7,456.40! Half of that money we used to immediately purchase almost 100 blankets and packages of food to distribute to the local homeless population of Pretoria North, which turned into a great experience one Friday night at the end of our month.  The 2nd half of that money will be given away to a local project of justice and compassion during our current learning posture of Imagining.  And so, we celebrate what God has done with our combination of whole and half-hearted attempts to be used by Him.