It's a Gift to Be Simple...How is that a Gift?! (2 of 3)

Photo by Mariana Beltrán on Unsplash

I asked my dear friend, Linda, what she thought the difference between "simplicity" and "settling" were and her answer surprised me.

"Simplicity asks, 'What do you truly want?''"

She went on, "With settling, I may settle for what I don't want and since it's not what I want, I keep looking for it.'"

Then she shared an example from her own life. 

Many years ago, a woman asked if she wanted a certain set of dishes for her wedding and if she did, this woman would buy them for her.  She really did not want them, but she felt uncomfortable saying "no" so she received them as a wedding gift.  Since she had them and could get more pieces to match, she expanded her collection of dishes she did not want but settled for.  But she noticed something. 

Whenever she was at a store that sold dishes, she looked at the patterns.  Years of time and energy were spent on looking for dishes when she already had a full set!  Her longing was left unsatisfied because she had settled so many years ago, afraid of offending the gift-giver.

Now having retired, she decided it was not too late and she knew what she wanted.  Much to the surprise of her family (who never knew she did not like the dishes!), she decided to box up her collection and put them for sale on a neighborhood social media site .  Then she went out and bought the dishes she truly wanted, a beautiful butterfly pattern.  Another woman happened to see the dishes she had for sale and was overjoyed for she had been looking for those exact dishes because they reminded her of her mother!  

Both were full of joy and satisfied with their purchases.

Guess what happened after that?  My friend stopped looking for dishes!  

We went on to talk about how we tend to buy things that are only on sale or we get what is cheap because we can have "more" of the item.  Sometimes this is okay, but when it becomes a pattern, our collection of unwanted, unused stuff grows along with our dissatisfaction which compares and wants more.  

What do you truly want?  
It can be a difficult question.  We need to stop and think rather than compulsively or fearfully say "yes" to what we do not want (or allowing others to decide for us or think we should want what others have).

Jesus often asked people like blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?"  
It's not that Jesus could not see what Bartimaeus wanted, He wanted Bartimaeus to "see" and say for himself!

It is a simple question.  
Yet answering honestly may just simplify the amount of internal and external stuff that becomes a burden--now that's a gift!

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