For 2023, I’m focusing on Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. For our first four months, we focused on the Inner Disciplines of Meditation; Prayer; Fasting; and Study.
Now, we turn to the first of four Outward Disciplines: Simplicity. In Ecclesiastes 7:30, King Solomon wrote, “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.”
The Christian Discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style. Both the inward and the outward aspects of simplicity are essential.
Simplicity begins in inward focus and unity. Consider living simply as noted by these two great Christian authors:
- Thomas Kelly talks of “The Divine Center” as a path to simplicity.
- Søren Kierkegaard captured the nucleus of Christian simplicity well in the profound title of his book, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing.
Experiencing the inward reality liberates us outwardly.
Click here to learn more from Richard Foster on the Discipline of Simplicity