Livin Simple

We just got back from a week in the woods. Backpacking has been my favorite sport for almost 25 years, and yet every time I get out there toting a pack, I am taken with how much I don't really need. When you walk the trail for a few days, life takes on a more simple style. The necessities are really all that matter - water, some food, a bed, a tent to get out of the rain. That's about it. Everything else that we define as 'necessity' is really about luxury.

After sleeping on the ground a week, we hit the road home. Boy, was that a weird experience. When backpacking, you watch the trail go under your feet, mile after mile. Sitting in the car we watched the road go under our feet, mile after mile, but it was a whole lot easier. All I had to do was push a little pad under my right foot and we sped down the road. My hips hurt a lot less. The weight on my back was a lot less, and the breeze through the window was a lot cooler.

But every mile we drove away from that simple mountain life I had been living the previous week brought more and more stuff into my mind - all I had to do, all the catching up I had to make up for, all the 'stuff' of life that pressed into my mind as we grew closer and closer to home and the official end of the trip. It was depressing.

Why can't we live light in life, back here in the real world? Why does it have to be so busy, so complicated, so noisy? Was this 'way' we live really God's plan for us? I mean, is this the style of life that He wanted for us? So much of what we do is to keep the big machine of our lives running. We make money to pay bills. We pay bills so we can live in this crazy culture. Things like insurance payments don't mean much out in the woods. But in the 'real' world, I MUST have insurance. The option of actually trusting Papa in an everyday life isn't an option. Car payments, gas payments, electric payments, insurance payments, utility payments, cat litter, Netflix, advertising costs, blah, blah blah! How much of it will matter in 50 years?

The sad part is I can't live light in this world. I can live lighter, but I can't live very light. The machine of our culture demands that I carry a heavier pack than I really want to carry. It is no wonder so much of our society is depressed, overworked, and pretty downright unhappy.

I want to live light. I want to live free. I want to unplug from the machines that control how we live. I am seeing that unplugging from the institutional church is only one plug of many in my life. And the question goes through my mind that says "Where is a point where unplugging from the machine might be unplugging my life support?" And "Shouldn't Jesus be my life support?"