How to simplify your busy life
Hunter McGee
Our lives are full of so much activity every day. We live in an age where social media, instant communication, and fast service are the norm. Culture begs us to buy items to make ourselves better, but this leaves us unsatisfied.
Every day feels like we have so much to do that if we don’t have a full adventurous schedule, then we’re not doing life right. We all want to have an abundant life, but this doesn’t mean we have to have plans every weekend to fill up our time. We get so busy keeping our lives full that we never truly get to focus on being fulfilled.
3 Ways to Simplify Your Life
1. Be content.
Being content is hard because our culture feeds our lack of simplicity by advertising products and adventures to try to make us feel discontent without them. We almost always desire far more than we need. When we don’t live by the desire for more and gaining material things, we can begin to find contentment in God and in His will for our lives.
An abundant life isn’t categorized by being busy, but by being content. An easier, fulfilling life will never be found through satisfying our immediate desires, but through being content no matter the circumstances (Philippians 4:11-13).
2. Get rid of your stuff.
We have too much stuff. When the self storage industry makes over $27 billion in one year, we obviously have an issue with an overcrowded life. Our desire should be to simplify our life by getting rid of our stuff before it controls us.
When we clutter our lives with stuff, we accumulate a desire in our hearts for them and they take the place of what we treasure most (Matthew 6:19-21). Simply, love for the stuff in this world more than anything is incompatible with love for Jesus (1 John 2:15-17).
Living a fulfilling life doesn’t mean our lives are full of activity, but that our lives are fulfilled in Jesus.
3. Enjoy where God has you.
Everything in this world tells us to live for more, but God calls us to enjoy life where we are now. Twitter feeds, Instagram posts, and Pinterest boards give us advice for leading a fulfilled life by telling us the next great thing we should be doing. They promise the secrets to a simple, organized, and content life, but it doesn't take long to realize that everything they advertise leaves us longing for more.
A fulfilled life isn’t about where you want to be in five years or what you will have, but where God has you now. Ecclesiastes 6:9-10 says that we should enjoy what we have rather than desiring what we don’t have. A simple life doesn’t have anything to do with stuff or a future version of ourselves.
Living the abundant life doesn’t mean our lives are full of activity, but that our lives are fulfilled in Jesus.