The Beauty of Simplicity

We sang the song "Beauty of Simplicity" at church today, and it reminded me of something I recently read in a book:

- The problem we face today needs very little time for its statement. Our lives in a modern city grow too complex and overcrowded...we are too busy to be good wives to our husbands, good homemakers, good companions of our children, good friends to our friends, and with no time at all to be friends to the friendless. But if we withdraw from public engagements and interests, in order to spend quiet hours with the family, the guilty calls of citizenship whisper disquieting claims in our ears...but we're weary and breathless. And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silences of the heart seem so few. And in guilty regret we must postpone till next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the holy Presence, where we sincerely know our true home is, for this week is much too full.


True words for today's time. Except this was written by Thomas Kelly, in the book A Testament of Devotion, back in 1941. Before the internet (Al Gore may have been alive, but he hadn't invented it yet, ha), before interstate highways, before two income families (mostly, at least). And yet, even back then the pull to a busy life was a temptation.

I live in a community where everyone is entirely too busy. Between keeping up with their kids' schedules with seventeen different sports and activities, work and a little church on the side, people are too busy. I yearn for a life that is simpler, a life that isn't so busy, yet it's hard to say no, isn't it?