I mentioned in my post yesterday that I just recently returned from New York City, where I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days with Eugene Peterson, at an intimate conference called Q Practices.

The focus of our two days together was on Cultivating Your Inner Life in an Age of Distraction.

It was such a rich time.

Our two days with Peterson were strategically divided up into hour-long conversations, facilitated by Gabe Lyons — conference host, with Eugene covering a number of spiritual practices. He was personable, humble and gracious.

Our second session with Peterson was focused on Simplicity.

Peterson started with a confession… Not only was simplicity the hardest discipline for him to talk about… but it has never personally been something that he has found easy to live out.

But from everything I’ve seen… his life would suggest otherwise. He moves gently, and has a soft-spoken demeanor, that almost makes you think of a monk — misplaced.

Peterson had some great insight to share, first pointing to how we’ve bought into the American obsession with ambition.

Americans need a goal that they can see… and work towards. But ambition is an enemy of simplicity. Our culture rewards ambition.

Note that he did not say that ambition is the enemy of simplicity — just an enemy.

But still.. who among us doesn’t have some level of ambitious drive within us? How do we balance this drive, or check this drive, against a call to simplicity?

It’s hard to pursue “more” of anything… and still be about simplicity. An intentional move towards simplicity requires the illumination and revelation of the Spirit in our lives, as well as a willingness to make necessary change(s) in how we live.

Peterson went on to challenge us as leaders when he observed that:

Pastors and Christian leaders need to move from being competitive to contemplative.

It seems that too many of us have become obsessed in our drive to compete (and win), as well as our drive to acquire… to buy and accumulate things!

We look and sound and live like much of the world around us… and yet somehow believe that we’re different from them.

We’ve been called to live a life that is “holy and set apart.” So in a world of ambition, competition, and acquisition… we need to choose to intentionally be about simplicity.

We need to invite God to show us ways in which we can simplify our lives — and then commit to those changes.

We need to pay more attention to the example of Jesus and those who have followed Him closely.

Peterson did offer a few practical suggestions for how we might move towards a more simple existence:

1. Slow down — and pay attention to things.
2. Make things — with your own hands — fight the urge to buy everything.
3. Think about your Table — buy local, think small, simple and immediate. Eat slowly. Enjoy your food — even more so, your company.
4. Receive what is before you — receptivity is a key to simplicity.
5. Stay “in your cell” a while — your home, your neighborhood, your congregation and/or workplace — until you’re content to just be there with the people who are there.

Simplicity is another work that starts in the heart… and eventually makes its way outward.

We need to curb our love of “success,” power and stuff. And when we clear out all of these desires, we might be surprised by how much more aware we are of God in our midst.

How is simplicity a part of your faithful existence?

How do you struggle with this spiritual practice?

How do you challenge students in this area?

To read more from this series, click on the Q Session.