Refine me: Priorities. Destination. Perspective.

A quote I have on a bookmark that someone gave me says;
"Your holy Fire now burns within
And purges every secret sin
My life the bush, Your Life the Flame
That leaves me nevermore the same
A heart like Yours my one desire
Do Your work, Refiner's Fire"
- Jennifer Kennedy Dean [based on Malachi 3:2, The Lord is like a Refiner's Fire]

Vow I: Simplicity

A frugal and focused life.

Usually when I tell people I studied English literature in college, their first question in response is "Who is your favorite author?" I really don't know why this is such a compelling question. However, one piece of writing that especially stuck with me was Walden by Henry David Thoreau. It was Thoreau who first proclaimed, "Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity!" Stuff like this really gets to me:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

I want to live deliberately. I want to be intentional in all I do. I want to strip away all the unnecessary bells and whistles in my life. I want to suck its marrow deep. I want to know Jesus and only Jesus.

For me simplicity hits on two fronts. A frugal life speaks to me and my finances. Its not about being cheap or a penny-pincher, but rather placing focus upon that which is truly important. Because stuff is just stuff. Frugality reminds me to look at the big picture and not just the immediate moment.

Secondly, simplicity speaks to my schedule. A week into school and already I have the sneaking suspicion I'm being swamped. It speaks to making time only to that which truly matters, of making that distinction between what is good and what is best.

There's a scene I love in Fight Club where the narrator recognizes that Tyler Durden has "the ability to let that which does not matter truly slide." I'd like to have that, too.

I'd like to know a simplicity that knows only that which matters most.

shalom

The Vows

Hey guys. So here's the blog.

This semester we'll be reflecting on the 10 Vows of a Vineyard Monastery. This was put together by some friends I have in Cincinnati as a means of defining their community.

Simplicity - a frugal and focused life.
Community - a shared and stable life.
Worship - a God-centered life.
Study - a transformed life.
Work - a productive and creative life.
Service - a generous life.
Hospitality - a welcoming life.
Justice- a socially active life.
Sabbath - a renewed life.
Celebration - a joy-filled life.

Here's what I envision happening. Each Wednesday I'll introduce one vow. Then throughout the week feel free to dialogue - comment, write posts of your own - but please, keep the conversation that topic for that week. Explore how each discipline intersects with you personally and how it intersects with us as a band of brothers under one roof.

Don't feel like you need to post some 1000+ word essay. Lord knows we have plenty of reading and writing to do already. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide your creativity in this, and we'll see what happens. Perhaps at the end of the year we'll have a written record of our spiritual formation as we are transformed together into a picture of Jesus.

And if any of you have personal weblogs you would like linked along the sidebar for the rest of your brothers, let me know and I can get those up. And as one last disclaimer, don't get married to the design. It will be a work in progress.

Soli deo gloria.