SUGGESTIONS FOR SIMPLE LIVING

The following is from Scott Bessenecker's book The New Friars, it's good stuff.


Simplicity is voluntary, free, uncluttered, natural, creative, authentic, focused, margined, diligent, and healthful.

Simplicity is not easy, legalistic, proud, impoverished, ascetic, neurotic, ignorant, escapist.

RELATIONSHIP
Cultivate a closeness with God
Practice regular hospitality
Help each other, emphasise service
Always speak the truth. Develop a habit of plain, honest speech. If you consent to a task, do it. Avoid flattery and half-truths. Make honesty and integrity the distinguishing characteristics of your speech.
Don’t judge.
Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
Consciously seek to identify with the poor and forgotten - visit hospitals, prisons, nursing homes.
Schedule “simple” dates with your spouse.
Teach your children.

ACTIVITIES
Make your commitments simple.
Don’t overwork.
Fast periodically from media, food, people.
Elevate reading, go to the library.
Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you. Cut down on the use of addictive, non-nutritional food and drinks such as alcohol, coffee, tea, soft drink, sugar, chocolate.
Simplify Christmas and other holidays. Develop the habit of homemade celebrations.

PACE AND ATMOSPHERE
Slow down.
Do not exhaust your emotional bank account.
Give yourself permission to be uncreative, barren, inactive.
Say no.
Restrict/eliminate television watching. Turn off or mute advertisements.
Learn to enjoy solitude.

POSSESSIONS AND FINANCES
Cultivate contentment, desire less.
Resist covetousness and consumerism.
Buy things for their usefulness, not their status.
Learn to enjoy things without owning them. Benefit from places of “common ownership” (parks, museums, libraries, rivers, public beaches).
De-accumulate. Develop the habit of giving things away.
Offer others the use of your possessions.
Develop a network of exchange.
Avoid impulse buying.
Don’t buy now, pay later.
Avoid credit cards if they are a problem.
De-emphasise respectability.
Simplify your wardrobe – give away excess.
Learn how to make do with a lower income instead of needing a higher one.

APPRECIATION
Be grateful for things large and small.
Emphasise a joyful life.
Appreciate creation.
Send cards of encouragement and appreciation when others are not expecting it.

SPIRITUAL LIFE
Make the Word central.
Meditate and memorise Scripture.
Pray.
Encourage simple worship.
Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the Kingdom of God.

Cleaning House

We are in the White House, well okay, right now I'm not at all, I'm at my old house because they have the internet and we haven't quite made it that far at the White House, but that aside after weeks of negotiating and planning we have the keys, most of our rooms have been unpacked, we've had our first house meetings and meals and junior sporting trophies have been placed in far too prominent areas. We're just finding our feet at this stage, actually people have hardly been home. Just quietly it's a little scary when you're there all by yourself. It's been fun though. I like coming home and reading the notes that have been left behind for each other on the kitchen counter.

Already there's a great sense of community, community pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, community that's been shaped by a call to trust God and each other as we ask God to help us to love one another as if our lives depended on it. We hear the call to travel with a deep consciousness of God as he shifts things in us and guides us with his love. And while we're sure that God cares deeply about the house, there's a sense in which God is asking each one of us to clean house, our house, our lives - life that begins now, not when we're done and dusted.

And what is community if it doesn't reach beyond itself? Initially, at least, we will take some time settling before we take some young people in (though there are several waiting and ready). We feel that it is important to develop some rhythms and practices that will guide the house and to continue to form community. It seems right to do some time in the wilderness together before we embark on the next chapter.

We are going to meet on Sunday's from 11-12 to read some scripture and pray followed by lunch at the house, if you'd like to be involved you're more than welcome, drop any of us a line and we'll make sure there's some food for you too!

Also, if you feel strongly, like a flame shut up in your bones to be a part of something like this then let us know, maybe you should be in the house with us, so think, pray, act, but don't let the thinking get in your way too much.

Bless you all,
Jesse on behalf of Obama and the White House

Update

The lease is coming - that's what we're hearing every day! And while we're all itching to get into the house and some times feel a little impatient, we can rest in the pretty amazing fact that the lease will come and we have scrapped together enough for the bond! Once again it's been the generosity and support of people that keeps getting us over the line, whether it be donations, words of encouragement or prayer. We've always known that we need to go beyond our own resources to make this work - sometimes this is something to be celebrated, a real tangible experience of the kingdom in our midst. At some points, however, if we are really honest, it has felt like a burden. It's funny that we would think light that - burdened by not being able to do something in our own strength, particularly when God is so faithful - but I guess that's human nature. The bottom-line though is that whether we celebrate God's faithfulness or rue our own limitations it doesn't change the reality, only our experience. The reality is that God is faithful and Jesus is Lord. So thanks to all of you who have supported us, we're becoming less and less surprised (but ever grateful) by how caring people are. Keep us in your prayers as we enter the house by Easter, pray that we will continue to make space for each other and others who will be a part of the house at a later point.
Peace, courage from Jesse on behalf of the house xo

Love is for the blind

Sometimes, when we look out before us, we see so little
We scan the horizon searching for something, anything, some kind of sign of life
But in the mist and the fog all you can do is see one step in front of you
Sometimes you are forced to step out into the unknown
The reason you are there though is because some things, terribly important things, are known.
With each step you take, your foot sinks into God-terrain, God-country - you can't flee from his kingdom company
If we only stopped to be silent we might hear the divine breathes.
Even as we take each step we are beckoned to remember that we have been gifted with a God-given energy for a God-given task
An involuntary valve allows the courage-building presence of God into our fearful hearts, pumping his life-giving blood into every sphere, carrying all that we need ever so faithfully time and time again.
Faith tells us that we'll be okay in the fog and mist.
Hope tells us that we'll find our way through the fog and mist, eventually.
But love is really important, love is what must guide each step.
Love never eliminates mystery, love can mean a million things.
But love will pave the way.
When we're so lost that we can hardly put one foot in front of the other
When we have no idea where we are,
Or where we're going,
Love will pave the way.
It might be all we have, and all we know
But that's great, because it might just be all we need
And love never fails.
So come fog, mist, rain or snow, love will lead us home.

Participating in the Divine Glory

It's amazing the way the house already calls us to shift expectations and reservations, to confront, to trust, to communicate, to let go of control, to give in a costly way - well before we've even gotten into the house together! I like M.Scott Peck's following reflections on community. He says,

When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word. I almost hesitate to use it. The word is "glory"

In all the chaos and shifting and trusting and communicating that goes on, perhaps this is precisely how it is actually supposed to be, that this is what it really means to reflect the image of God most powerfully - in community, with one another, for better, for worse, in the good times and the bad. And I reckon we'll come out better for it too.

April Fools

After weeks of negotiating, praying and planning we have officially been approved to move into the White House on April 1st – Fittingly, I think, April Fools. It seemed foolish right from the beginning to check the house out, foolish to offer so much less than they were asking for, foolish to think we’d find enough “fools” to fill house and foolish to place justice and community before individual security and comfort -at least that’s what we’ve often been told along the way. It’s still pretty surreal to think about how this has all come about but to be honest I prefer thinking about why it has all come about. I’m convinced that we are called to be part of Christ's answer to the real cries of a community's heart as we seek solidarity with the poor and powerless. I think God is all about helping us to see needs and well as recognising, within ourselves and beyond, abilities. That’s why we will open our homes and commit to supporting young people by feeding them, giving them our time and ensuring their safety. That’s why we will advocate for homeless young people. And that’s why we’ll probably ask for your help along the way.

Maybe you can help us out with things like:
Prayer
Meals
A Filing Cabinet
Locks for doors
Furniture and Electrical Stuff (Bunk or single beds, couches, tables and chairs, desks, computers, wardrobes and cupboards, chest freezer)
Household linen (Single bed sheets, pillows, pillow cases, quilts, quilt covers, blankets, towels, tea towels)
Our impending and imposing $10,000 bond
Or perhaps you’d like to help out in an ongoing way with financial donations that would specifically contribute towards the rent and food of the young people in our place.

If you want to get involved in the life of the house some how just let us know. We’ve never thought that we could/should do any of this alone and we want people to be involved in the house.

Thanks for everyone who has already shown such amazing support and encouragement.

Peace and courage from the house.

Remember

To the daring ones who hear the voice, who hunger for adventure and find rest in following,
It seems like so long ago, those days when we started paying attention to the stirrings God had placed on our hearts.
I think it’s because God has done so much in that time.
He has challenged us to greater depths of faith and openness to his Spirit within us.
He has brought together like hearts.
He has dared us to orient our lives around his heart, his purposes, his kingdom.
He has been shaping us and forming a living hope within us, preparing our hearts like a master chef prepares for a banquet.
The invitations have been sent out. The guests are at the door.
There is a sense of excitement, but also, if we are really honest, some nerves.
And why wouldn’t there be?
We are all-too human,
with our all-too human vulnerabilities,
with our all-too human fears.
Fear is a funny thing. Fear can make us do unusual things, or even worse, nothing at all.
It seems silly to think that we would allow fear to call the shots, particularly after everything we’ve learned.
But that’s because we forget.
We forget so easily who is running the show, who brought us all together.
We remember the part about how we can’t achieve a whole lot but forget the most important bit:
He who calls us is faithful.
He goes before us, calling us out into wide open spaces.
We are vulnerable, but he is a strength made known in weakness.

Remember, remember, remember.

Be fearless.
Laugh at impossibilities.
Pray at all times.
Be fully persuaded that he has the power & willingness to do what he has promised.

Remember, remember, remember.

House Update

Friends and Supporters of the Pasadena Whitehouse Housing Initiative,

Maybe writing to you all is as much about trying to get my head around the last few crazy weeks as it is about letting you know what's happening. Actually more than anything I wanted to say thanks to all those who have offered encouragement and prayer. As much as I'm sure following Jesus calls us to follow him in some pretty crazy ways into uncharted territories, the reality is that entering into unknowns and going beyond your own resources is quite daunting. More often than not it's been the support many of you have offered that has kept us focussing on Jesus rather than the chopping waves beneath our feet. Please, please, please continue to pray for us. If you're wondering who has committed to living in the house, Sam Polglase, Kate Sare, Amanda Hillgrove, Sarah Addington, Chelsea Schramm, Matt Breen, Allie Ranson and myself are looking at moving in early March. When I say pray for us though "us" means so much more than those eight in the house. There are plenty of others involved, people who share the dream and are involved in ways that are so important. The house is about far more than simply living in community; ultimately we want the house to serve a purpose greater than community for the sake of community.

A bit of history for those who aren't quite up to speed, for a while now, a small group of young people, trained and working as youth and social workers, occupational therapists, and community workers began to dream of how we could make a difference to some of the young homeless people we encounter on a daily basis. Without supported accommodation many young people remain trapped in a cycle of unemployment, poverty and hardship with little hope of escape. We longed for an opportunity to arise where we could provide safe, stable, and affordable short-term accommodation for some young people.

Early in January 2009, a large house in Pasadena became available for rent, and the owners were generous enough to grant us access to a lease at a greatly reduced price. Our plans for this property are as follows:
· 8-10 full-time tenants united and committed in both their Christian faith and professions to serving the poor and disadvantaged will occupy and maintain the property, and develop a functioning community home. They will also be committed to covering the full cost of the weekly rent.
· The remaining rooms in the house will then be made available to persons who are in need of short term accommodation.
· Each person who seeks accommodation support will be assisted to gain support through community agencies and services in order to obtain long-term stable accommodation.

This initiative is not seeking to become a formal youth service, offering professional care. Rather it seeks to create a welcoming, supportive and safe residential community home. It is our hope that this home will support some of the young people we know who may be struggling, and help them as they work towards being able to support themselves to break out of the cycle of unemployment and poverty.

As things currently sit, we're working out between us how we can get together enough money to pay the $10,000 bond by March the 1st. I don't know exactly where all of that will come from but God has stirred too much and provided too much for us to start thinking that this is something that will stop us! Right from the outset it's been a process of God stirring, us curiously and tentatively moving, God providing and revealing His faithfulness.

If you would like further information on this project, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We continue to pray that such a community draws together like hearts.

Blessings,
Jesse Size on behalf of our Whitehouse Community