Trial by Fire: Simplify Your Life

Revisiting a fiery trial has taught me many lessons about what is truly important in life.

Pictures from this summer’s wildfires reminded me of our fiery trial in May. Our garage burned while we were away for a weekend in our RV.

Our garage, two vehicles and all the contents of the apartment above the garage, along with a storage building next to it, were a pile of ashes when we returned home.

Our home was spared but received smoke damage because of windows that were blown out by the fire. Thankfully God protected our neighborhood, and no one was hurt. We also had the blessing of being able to stay in an RV park near our home while cleanup and repairs were being done.

It was very painful to realize that so many things I cherished had gone up in smoke, but there was no undoing what had been done. And I soon realized there was still an abundance of stuff in our home.

Simplify your life

From the time I began attending the Church of God, I remember Herbert W. Armstrong entreating us to simplify our lives. But the formula for that simple-sounding instruction escaped me all my life. Though it was always in the back of my mind, I could never really put my finger on what simplifying my life really looked like.

Life seemed to dictate that you go with the flow, upgrade to the latest new thing, buy a bigger house when you had another child or ran out of room, etc.

Stuff

I recently watched a show about personal space, which expanded into a commentary about people’s attachment to stuff that results in millions of storage buildings holding items people do not need but cannot let go of.

What does this have to do with my trial by fire? Well, a lot of stuff perished in the fire. Many Bibles and other books from college; a James Michener hardbound book collection, a couple of them signed by the author; Erma Bombeck books and many others; a king-size, hand-crocheted bedspread I made in college; my grandmother’s hand-crocheted bedspread, needlepoint and crafts; yearbooks; diplomas; pictures; and on and on I could go.

So when the insurance gave us the task of listing all the things we could remember that evaporated in flames, we found it mentally taxing and emotionally draining.

The other stuff in our house was removed and cleaned. We were told it would take a 12- by 25-foot storage building to hold our furnishings with one aisle down the middle. That is just the stuff in the house!

The memory of “simplify your life” jumped out at me again.

Plans for the future

When everyone moved out of our house except for my husband and me, we began to realize the house was too big. The maintenance and upkeep were unreasonable for just the two of us, and we had other and better things to do.

Tony loves to drive, and I love to look at the beautiful nature our country is full of. My teaching allows us generous time to do just that during vacations, so we have seriously entertained the idea of living in our RV.

Okay, now I am getting down to the crux of the matter. Should we replace the stuff that burned? What should we do with our other stuff?

What to do?

I began to realize that the real bottom line is whether physical stuff could hinder my spiritual path (Matthew 6:33). Could this have anything to do with simplifying my life?

Matthew 6:19-21 tells us to set our sights on things above—things that are not corrupted by moth or rust. We could sit around and mope about the stuff we lost, but in reality the physical stuff is not the stuff eternity is made of. My spiritual eyesight is becoming a little less blurry.

In Luke 18:18-23 we read about the rich ruler who asked Christ what he lacked yet. The bottom line was for him to share what he had with those who didn’t have as much. Hmmm!

That brings to remembrance the saying “When is enough, enough?”

Perhaps moving into the RV is part of the solution. We will be forced to make a choice between all our stuff and sharing a lot of stuff with those who need it or can use it.

My goal is 20/20 vision (spiritually)—and not just in hindsight! You might think about how to simplify your life—we certainly are!

For related reading, see “Praying for Our Daily Bread.”

Susan Scott Smith has been a teacher for more than 20 years and is a member of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in Texas.