Avoid Stress? I'm choosing to Simplify Life!

Today's "Message of the Week" in The Tennessean by Ray Waddle uses the lives and focuses of the various Saints honored today on All Saints Day and sums it up by saying they all depend on confidence in something bigger and more enduring than our ever-demanding inbox! For me stress is avoided mostly by putting my dependence on God, my higher power; and also by trying to keep life simple.

My move to Costa Rica is partly for this reason and I pray I will keep it simple there (one can overload/overstress anywhere). Today's post in my Moving to Costa Rica Blog talks about this briefly as I mention re-discovering Richard Foster's book Freedom of Simplicity which I just loaded on my Kindle Fire. The current act of getting rid of all the many years of accumulated stuff is freeing and adding simplicity before I even move! Then when I get there, I am not going to get a car, choosing rather to walk, ride a bike, and use public transportation. I can hardly wait! I feel stress leaving my body already. Life will turn to relating to a new community and focusing on nature with my cameras, which is summed up in "loving God and loving people" all around me. That is life! Pura Vida!

Thy Will Be Done

Last Monday I mentioned last Sunday's sermon installment on The Lord's Prayer about Matthew 6:10

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Monday I wrote more about His Kingdom and then today it registered that last night's post was influenced by the "Thy Will Be Done" portion of the prayer. The God's Will portion of that sermon listed these descriptions:

1. It is for all people everywhere
2. It is to be obeyed (or done by us)
3. When we do it, it is His Kingdom in action
4. It is to be done constantly, consistently, pursued as if all depends on it
5. Done cheerfully. If we do not willingly do His Will, His Kingdom and thus His Will will not come. 

So me "doing God's will" is not as much about "a call" as I used to think but more about obedience, following Jesus, being Christ-like.

Then in Sunday school today I was reminded that throughout the Bible God/Jesus tells me how to behave, relate to others, live my life wherever I am and whatever I'm doing. I need to be doing God's will (obey Him) in the particular life I live today in Nashville, Tennessee and then when I move to Costa Rica I am to continue to do God's will (obey Him), though related to different people, different culture, and different activities. I see new and exciting possibilities for an incarnational ministry in Cost Rica as I had in The Gambia, while continuing my love of nature and conservation education as part of His Will. Neighbors, friends and acquaintances will know I am a Christian by my love while becoming part of some local Christian fellowship will help me follow Christ and hopefully I will eventually contribute to their relationship to God as I found with Glory Baptist in The Gambia. The unknown there is an exciting part of the spiritual adventure and again where I trust God to lead the way and provide those providential encounters He always has in my life. Wow! I can hardly wait to get there and see what He has waiting for me!