I recently purchased a book that contains stories written by various authors. The topic focused on having less and how much joy that can bring, along with decreased stress.
I began reading some of the short stories and marveled at what people did to downsize or become more of a minimalist. Clothing, interior decorations, furniture—stuff. Sorting, giving, selling, throwing away. Even stories about those who loved to fill their calendar with many activities who eventually realized they needed time to be filled and enjoy the moments of each day.
As my mind began to absorb some of these practical reasons to live with less, I picked up my devotional materials from the living room recliner where I had just spent time with the Lord. I began walking through the house, my arms loaded with things to take back to the bookcase in another room. The load was heavy and contained 1) a spiral journal I’m using as a diary, 2) my gratitude notebook, 3) a book titled The Desire of Ages, 4) a book on the names of God, 5) another book about the righteousness of Christ, 6) a women’s devotional book, 7) colored index cards on a ring that contain prayer requests, 8) one of my favorite Bibles, 9) and a page that’s printed with Romans chapter 8 that I am memorizing.
This is crazy, I told myself. I have too much stuff I’m trying to incorporate each morning into my devotional time! This is so ridiculous. I need to downsize in this area.
Here I am, racing through each item and crossing them off my mental devotional to-do list, instead of savoring and focusing on the message God wants me to not only understand, but incorporate into my life. Am I really learning anything? Retaining anything? Learning to know God?
The song, “More About Jesus,” says the following in verse two:
More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern.
Spirit of God, my Teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
(More About Jesus by E. E. Hewitt, public domain)
Really? Was that even possible with how I was spending time with the Lord? It seemed more like stuffing all these good and precious materials into my brain in one sitting and expecting retention to automatically happen as the devotional “hose” was gushing into me.
What is the purpose of spending time with Jesus on a daily basis? Item #1 on my to-do list crossed off this morning? Yay, as I congratulate and give myself a pat on the back. Done. Now on to other things for the day.
Stop and think. My real reason to spend time with God is to learn to recognize His voice, learn about His character, and pray for His character to shine through me. I want to fall in love with Him, and that can only be accomplished by meditating and thinking about God and having a prayer life that not only speaks to God, but allows enough time to wait for Him to speak to me.
So, I began sorting through the many items I’d been perusing during my devotional time—and ended up with fewer things.
For me, less is best, so I can truly learn more about Jesus.
