Dave Kraft » Church Leadership Mind Heart

Simplicity. That word keeps popping up! It comes up in conversations I’ve been having. I hear it used in movies and in books. It’s something people desire but have given up hope of ever experiencing. But I long for it—long to live a simple, uncomplicated and focused life, a life that is not moving too fast where I try to do too much. A life that is not allowing the Tyranny of the Urgent to take over and run me ragged physically and emotionally.

How Do I Focus?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living simply—keeping my life and ministry simple. Recently, the concept of simplicity has quietly and forcefully surfaced in my Bible reading (some examples include Luke 14:11, 1 Cor. 2:1-2, and 1 Tim. 2:2). When I think of simply being myself, of operating simply in life and ministry, I am not thinking of being semi-retired, or of joining Henry David Thoreau on Walden Pond. I'm thinking of focusing on a few things in ministry and life, and practicing the advice of Steven Covey: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” It's about priorities and concentration.

Simple Contentment

Leaders I work with struggle to consistently keep things simple—to clearly know what they are about, what they are called to, and gifted to do. They bounce from one thing to the next, filling their schedules with lots of activities, being more reactive than proactive. Author and speaker Fred Smith says that “busyness is the new spirituality.” Many leaders are not content with who they are, where they are, what they are doing, and what Jesus is doing. They long to be someone else, be somewhere else, and do something else. Whatever happened to simple contentment? Life seems to hurl a lot at us. Go there, do this, buy that, help with this, commit to that. I find it so easy to be distracted from the simplicity of who I am and what I am about. I’m often tempted to cave in to the expectations and demands of others—especially those whose opinions matter deeply to me. At times it’s difficult to hear the voice of God in the midst of all the noise of life. In my next post I'll give you 7 things I'm doing to simplify my life. To be continued.