Ben’s March Letter
Dear Friends in Christ,
A few weeks ago, as I prepared to make an elaborate Valentine’s dinner, I stopped at four different grocery stores to get the ingredients I wanted. To avoid traffic between them I took a complicated series of back roads which saved me no actual time. I stopped for lunch along the way, at a restaurant whose food I enjoy but whose political advocacy I don’t approve of—and then I went to Target, not because I needed anything but because I wanted to see if a new sweater would solve all of my problems (it didn’t). Once I was home, my recipes came together in four hours, not the promised two, and my feet were sore from standing. I was worn out—by the stops, the choices, the clutter, the sense that I wasn’t matching my own values. Maybe I overdid it, I thought. Maybe if I’d just ordered a heart-shaped pizza I could have stayed up through an entire movie. Maybe simpler was better…
This month, The Grove (Evergreen’s new ministry of connection, community, and spiritual growth) is hosting a Lenten lunch series about simplicity. When someone mentioned the idea—the entire room latched on immediately. Because I’m not the only person who can spend an entire day making things complicated, deciding too many small questions, choosing things that don’t align with my values, buying things that clutter up my house, or doing tasks instead of making quality time with a loved one. It turns out—lots of people crave simpler lives, and want to learn how to have them.
As we begin Lent (March 5—come to Ash Wednesday service at 7!) we commit ourselves to focusing more on God and our spiritual wellness, something we do by saying “no” to things that take time and focus away from God. It’s the perfect time to talk about simplicity—a spiritual practice that helps us focus on things that are really important—God, family, friends, our own wellness, our own integrity. On March 9, March 23, and April 6, we will share a (simple!) soup lunch, and talk about what it means to live a less complicated life.
Maybe for you, that means doing fewer things. Or perhaps it means aligning the things you do with your beliefs. It could be that you need less stuff, or maybe just that gathering stuff has become your purpose, rather than something more important. For me—it is a little bit of all of them. But for all of us, simplicity helps us focus on God and each other. In a busy time of the year, in a stressful time of life—what a gift that is.
Wishing you a simple Lent,
Rev. Ben