The Simple Life!

My wife and I have really been pursuing simplification in our life lately, I would say, probably the last year or so.  We have pursued it on and off for three or four years, but I believe we are really starting to accomplish some form of simplification.  

One of our driving desires in the pursuit of simplification is to live, work, and worship all in the same neighborhood.  For us, this means within a mile or two of each other.  It really includes shopping, playing, school, etc.  

We have made huge strides toward simplifying our life by accomplishing the following:

• We sold our only TV in a garage sale, and had cox cable tv turned off..... what was that.... did you gasp..... you really should try it, it is extremely gratifying and freeing.... careful with this if you have kids, but it's still a wise move I would think (we don't have any).
• We have sold our house in Choctaw, moved to NW 27th and Penn in Oklahoma City.
• We downsized our mortgage in the process by about $45,000 dollars, which in direct correlation reduced our mortgage payment by about 40%, thus freeing up resources for other endeavors (or maybe just to fully pay our bills every month, lol).
• We have downsized our square footage by about 30%, thus taking less time for upkeep, cleaning, decorating, etc.  
• We are attending a church within one mile of our house.
• Rebecca is starting school at OCU in the fall, three blocks away.  
• We shop no further than two to three miles away, but in fact, most of the time, shop only four to five blocks away.

I'm not bragging by any means, please don't think so, I just want to challenge you to think about simplification and the things you want out of life, the important stuff to you.  Can you really accomplish it living the way you are living?  

Of course, the goal of simplification is to free up resources (i.e., time, talent, money, things, etc), but the real progress starts happening when you are able and willing to start investing those resources into other people, into relationships, into building bridges into people's lives.  I'll save that post for another time.  

Are you in need of a major simplification in your life?  Are you interested in doing it?  Do you have the guts to do it?  Will you make the decisions necessary in order to free up valuable time and money for your family, friends, neighbors, and Christ?