{"id":5574,"date":"2019-07-23T06:30:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5574"},"modified":"2019-07-23T06:31:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:31:27","slug":"celebration-of-discipline-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/07\/23\/celebration-of-discipline-simplicity","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of Discipline: Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2019<\/a>. The sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m trav\u00adel\u00ading right now and don\u2019t have a lot of time to write up my thoughts on this chap\u00adter, so I\u2019ll sim\u00adply say that while I like this Fos\u00adter\u2019s thoughts on sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty this chap\u00adter reminds me of how quick\u00adly he wrote the book. His thoughts are unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly jum\u00adbled at times, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when it comes to eco\u00adnom\u00adics. He has a good advice for indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals, but he seems to con\u00adfuse wise indi\u00advid\u00adual choic\u00ades with wise social struc\u00adtures. That aside, there\u2019s a lot of sol\u00adid advice in this chap\u00adter about liv\u00ading a sim\u00adple life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fos\u00adter does\u00adn\u2019t define sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty clear\u00adly, but he most\u00adly seems to mean being con\u00adtent, being gen\u00ader\u00adous and being sus\u00adpi\u00adcious of indul\u00adgence. I\u2019m actu\u00adal\u00adly sur\u00adprised he did\u00adn\u2019t make gen\u00aderos\u00adi\u00adty one of his twelve cen\u00adtral spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal dis\u00adci\u00adplines. Gen\u00aderos\u00adi\u00adty with a side of sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty seems more faith\u00adful to the Bib\u00adli\u00adcal wit\u00adness than sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty with a side of gen\u00aderos\u00adi\u00adty. Regard\u00adless, he made the focus sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty (per\u00adhaps so he can bring in com\u00adments about sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty in speech on pages 93\u201394).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had to pick one quote that stood out to me, it would be this one: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cen\u00adtral point for the Dis\u00adci\u00adpline of sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty is to seek the king\u00addom of God and the right\u00adeous\u00adness of his king\u00addom first and then every\u00adthing nec\u00ades\u00adsary will come in its prop\u00ader order\u2026. Focus upon the king\u00addom pro\u00adduces the inward real\u00adi\u00adty, and with\u00adout the inward real\u00adi\u00adty we will degen\u00ader\u00adate into legal\u00adis\u00adtic triv\u00adia. Noth\u00ading else can be cen\u00adtral. The desire to get out of the rat race can\u00adnot be cen\u00adtral, the redis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion of the world\u2019s wealth can\u00adnot be cen\u00adtral, the con\u00adcern for ecol\u00ado\u00adgy can\u00adnot be cen\u00adtral\u2026. The per\u00adson who does not seek the king\u00addom first does not seek it at all.\u201d <\/p>Richard Fos\u00adter, Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline, pages 86\u201387.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There are many peo\u00adple who pur\u00adsue a sim\u00adple lifestyle for oth\u00ader rea\u00adsons. God\u00adly sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty isn\u2019t pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly about reduc\u00ading your car\u00adbon foot\u00adprint or engag\u00ading in effec\u00adtive altru\u00adism. The sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty we pur\u00adsue is root\u00aded in our uncom\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded devo\u00adtion to God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One last com\u00adment and a bit of a tan\u00adgent: \u201cIt is time we awak\u00aden to the fact that con\u00adfor\u00admi\u00adty to a sick soci\u00adety is to be sick\u201d (page 80). Sil\u00adi\u00adcon Val\u00adley in gen\u00ader\u00adal and Stan\u00adford in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar have very unhealthy ten\u00adden\u00adcies, and to the extent we feel ful\u00adly at home here we reveal unhealth\u00adi\u00adness in our\u00adselves. In this regard I often reflect on 2 Peter 2:7\u20138, \u201cLot, a right\u00adeous man, who was dis\u00adtressed by the depraved con\u00adduct of the law\u00adless (for that right\u00adeous man, liv\u00ading among them day after day, was tor\u00adment\u00aded in his right\u00adeous soul by the law\u00adless deeds he saw and heard).\u201d If we are nev\u00ader dis\u00adtressed at Stan\u00adford then we are not pay\u00ading suf\u00adfi\u00adcient atten\u00adtion to God, to Stan\u00adford, or to both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any\u00adway, I hope you are chal\u00adlenged by this week\u2019s read\u00ading! Remem\u00adber that next week we are read\u00ading both the chap\u00adter on soli\u00adtude as well as the pref\u00adace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ad\u00ading-project-2019. The sched\u00adule is online. I\u2019m trav\u00adel\u00ading right now and don\u2019t have a \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cCel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline: Sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Some reflections on Richard Foster's discussion of simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[264,258,263],"class_list":["post-5574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-celebration-of-discipline","tag-money","tag-summer-reading-project-2019"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1rU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5574"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5584,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions\/5584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}