Jared and Jody on Simplicity

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

Areas our family has been working on (sadly limited):

15. Striving to living free from the fruits of injustice and oppression rather than giving up such a seemingly impossible path.
(Early Friends would refuse to eat sugar which had been produced through slave labor and refuse to participate in war to gain from the spoils. Are there ways in which we could similarly opt out of benefiting from injustice in the products we buy or the places we choose to go?)

- For several years, our family has tried to:
- Avoid buying anything produced in sweatshops.
- Re-use; buy used.
- Buy locally produced, organic food.
- Fishers’ beef
- Canning/freezing
- Azure Standard
- Gardening?kids know where food comes from
- Sharing w/ friends
- Minimize our energy consumption.
- Live in town?walk whenever possible.
- Reduce trips.
- Keep heat low in winter.
- Thermal improvements on home.
- There are so many instances and degrees of oppression in the economic world that this seems nearly impossible.
- “Sustainable” purchases are more expensive (i.e. organic food, alternative energy)
- Priorities (family time?getting to WI and CA requires energy)
- Love of people & of God’s creation should motivate us?not guilt.

5. Creating a community that lives a distinctly different life?rather than a community that simply provides a religious dimension to life.
- Considered co-housing options. (Limited by land use laws in OR).
- Small group ?> lots of sharing (tools, child care/education, work, food/meals; shared struggle to live out kingdom life)
- Areas to grow: worship; outreach;

9. Participating with God?s work outside the church rather than limiting ministry to within the church.
- Teaching; being a neighbor. In theory, reaching out more.
- The kingdom life is to be lived more than talked about.

14. Living in the reality of inward and spiritual communion with God rather than just insisting that communion is inward and spiritual.
- Discipline of constant communion = the essence of a true spirituality. Fits & starts. Small groups help.

Simplicity

Leave a Reply