Now – as a freelance web type person that is sometimes kind of important. But as a father, as a husband this isn’t the way it should be.

A bit ago Brian Gardner spoke about taking time out from work to focus on ‘life balance’. Brian seems like a great guy and his WordPress work really is an inspiration to me, I love his writing when he does it too. Here he doesn’t go quite so far as mentioning a weekly Sabbath but I reckon his work would be even better (if possible!) if he went that far… Another while back my friend Ali spoke about texting while having a conversation. And often people talk about multi tasking. And don’t get me wrong – there are times when it’s good to multi-task. But I don’t think it’s right to do it while I should be spending time with my family. Or with my friends. Or with someone who needs me. And actually something Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis made sense to me when I read it a while back and then I forgot about it. Sian reminded me of it the other day. I thought I’d share it here.

Sabbath is taking a day a week to remind myself that I did not make the world and that it will continue to exist without my efforts.

Sabbath is a day when my work is done, even if it isn’t.

Sabbath is a day when my job is to enjoy. Period.

Sabbath is a day when I am fully available to myself and those I love most.

Sabbath is a day when I remember that when God made the world, he saw that it was good. ]

Sabbath is a day when I produce nothing,

Sabbath is a day when I remind myself that I am not a machine.

Sabbath is a day when at the end I say, “I didn’t do anything today,” and I don’t add, “And I feel so guilty.”

Sabbath is a day when my phone is turned off, I don’t check my email, and you can’t get hold of me.

Jesus wants to heal our souls, wants to give us the shalom of God. And so we have to stop. We have to slow down. We have to sit still and stare out the window and let the engine come to idle. We have to listen to what our inner voice is saying.

I’m going to give it a go. It’s easy to say that it’s going to be Sunday but to be honest life kind of takes over quite often on Sunday – I’m ‘working’ at church or on Reader’s Training or something along those lines. Saturday is more often than not a much better day for me to stop.

So. You guys can hold me accountable to this. From now on (pauses to have a quick think about what he’s doing this Saturday) I will not ‘work’ on a Saturday. Saturday will be the “day when my phone is turned off, I don’t check my email, and you can’t get hold of me”… it will be the day I don’t update my Facebook status or Tweet about what I’m doing… it’s going to be the day that I stop to listen, I stop to be the father that I was created to be, I stop to be the husband I was created to be.

It will be the day I stop to “be still and know that God is God”.

I have to say it’s going to be a struggle keeping up with this one. So much of me wants to say it’s great to read all the detail about how the Levites should work and how and what sacrifices should be made and to learn in more depth about the ways of the Israelites as they strived to create their way of living as community but I have to be honest – I don’t find it very interesting.

In other news – I have an iPhone. And the great thing is it has been provided by the amazing Helen (off of Facebook & York) without a charge (well – there is a kind of charge but I’m going to talk about that more when I’ve paid it)

But the even greater thing is that it came about because Helen was… actually… I’m going to let her explain. Quote:

I was inspired by your note about living simply a while ago…made me think about holding on to all things (possessions, time, expertise) more lightly. And the more we share our needs/wants with each other, the more we allow other people the chance to help! That for me is the bigger deal…

It kind of ties in with some things I’ve been thinking over lately. And a talk by Rob Bell that I heard the other day. He spoke about the need to be willing to ask for stuff! And that we shouldn’t apologise when we ask for things. I’m not really sure he meant things like iPhones. I think he probably meant slightly more important things (like the example he gave of when his very pregnant wife woke up in the middle of night unable to breath and he needed to ring someone to ask them to come look after his other kid)

A lot of the time I want to help people, I want to be better at being a Christian but I’m not sure I put myself in a position to do this. Now – I know it’s my responsibility to do that so I figure if I start using the places I hang out (Facebook, my blog, Java Lounge etc) more effectively then I will (hopefully) begin to see more opportunity to be helpful. But also by expressing my needs (and sometimes wants!) in those places then I can also provide other people with the opportunity to help… to provide for those needs.

So – you can but ask. Feel free to use this place to ask for stuff (and by stuff I mean stuff you need…) I can’t say I’ll have it or be able to give it but if you’re in need then you’ve gotta ask.

Another pretty obvious one that kind of ties in to the first key to living the simple life today but I thought I would share it anyway.

This one is “be willing to share anything you own”. Get into the habit of lending people stuff. And then don’t ask for it back. Whatever it is really. Books, DVDs, money, your car, your shoes… get into the habit of letting people use your stuff. As I said, it’s not really your stuff anyway. So if someone is in need let them use your provision for that need.

The not asking for it back isn’t a hard and fast rule – just a suggestion really – obviously if you need it back, like if you’re not very tall and you lend someone a ladder you may need it back to get something out of the fridge… but anyway – lend people stuff and don’t worry if you don’t get it back.

It all comes down to the stuff not really being ours. Sian has been reading Acts just lately and has been excited about the early church sharing stuff. There are parts in Acts where it says some early church members sold everything they had and lived off a common purse but I don’t think the bible suggests this as a hard and fast rule for Christian living. The idea of it though, and indeed the thing that I think excited Sian, was the idea that everything we have (and indeed everything we can do) should be available to our family, our community.

I’ve probably not explained this too well but I’m kind of hoping Sian might comment on it!

First things first. May be an obvious one. Not sure.

Key to simplicity lesson number 1. Accept that everything you have was given to you by God. James 1 tells us every good and perfect gift comes from God. I don’t think there’s a better place to start on this. I might be wrong.

But honestly – things are going to get more complicated on this journey to simplicity – so we’ll start with the obvious one. Accept that everything you have was given to you by God.