DNDW 4: Simplicity
Feeling buried under your stuff, suffocated by your schedule, and exhausted by others’ expectations? Author and simplicity expert Jan Johnson chats with Christine about the paradoxical liberation of simplification. They explore how to determine your core values, establish your priorities, and chisel away what’s getting in the way of rest, joy, and abundance. They also discuss how “checkbox spirituality” contributes to our exhaustion, why Amazon won’t save us, and how to do a heart exam in the middle of Target. If you’d like to learn to be more present, generous, and peaceful, this episode will encourage and equip you to take practical steps toward simplifying your life and faith.
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DNDW 4 Special Guest
Jan Johnson
is a writer, speaker and spiritual director who has degrees in biblical studies and Christian spirituality. She's written twenty-three books, including Enjoying the Presence of God, When the Soul Listens, and many magazine articles. She's also a frequent retreat and conference speaker and mainly speaks on:
1.) Spiritual formation: As we do the connecting with God, God does the perfecting in us.
2.) Partnering with God in caring for the voiceless: Arranging our lives to love this world that God so loves.
3.) Living with Purposeful Intentionality: Interacting with God throughout all of life and letting him compel us, comfort us, and nudge us along.
Season 3 | Draw Near Dwell Well | Topics & Guests
DNDW1: Series Intro | Christine
DNDW2: The Theology of Invitation | Christine
DNDW3: Discerning Shifts | Emily P. Freeman
DNDW4: Practicing Simplicity | Jan Johnson
DNDW5: Sabbath Rest | Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith
DNDW6: Slowing Down | Laura L. Smith
DNDW7: Stillness, Therapy & Prayer | Crystal Logan
DNDW8: Relational Health | Bob Hamp
DNDW9: Emotional Health | Christy Boulware
DNDW10: Silence & Solitude | Andrew Ranucci
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
Draw Near Dwell Well Resources
The Holy Shift Resources
Scripture
MATTHEW 6: SIMPLICITY FROM SEEKING FIRST1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
PSALM 1311 LORD, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. 2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
1 Timothy 6:6-86 Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7 After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
Quotes
Our corner of the kingdom is hooked on checkbox spirituality...when it's really all about desiring God. -Jan Johnson
I think that once we begin tasting the goodness of God, we just want more of God, and we want to connect with God. We want to have that interactive life with God. And we begin to see that, okay, without this, we're only half alive. -Jan Johnson
Simplicity is liberating. It's like chiseling away what's in the way to expose the art in the stone. -Christine Crawford
More than anything else, simplicity is about making space for God.... The white space on the calendar is very important. Being still and knowing that God is God. -Jan Johnson
Do it as you can, not as you can't. -Jan Johnson
The goal of spiritual formation is transformation. And so I always say, you do the connecting and God will do the perfecting, -Jan Johnson
Simplicity is not the absence of beauty. In fact, I feel like simplicity is what makes room for us to notice beauty, to appreciate beauty. -Christine Crawford
A really good place for someone to start is just to begin practicing a pause. A pause before purchasing, a pause before speaking, a pause before acting, a pause before accumulating or doing or whatever else. -Jan Johnson
Related Inspiration
Art & Reflection by Sofia Rector
[Leaves] fall in the late autumn to reveal bare branches--but also hope: furry buds tightly curled, awaiting spring warmth.
Music
DRAW NEAR DWELL WELL SEASON PLAYLIST
Spanning the spectrum from contemporary worship and traditional hymns to spiritually-secular and vibey instrumental, here's a cross-genre collection to help calm anxiety and inspire connection with God.💛
Other Resources
DWELL BIBLE & PRAYER APP
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Hallow Prayer & Meditation APP
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BIBLEHUB: SEARCH, READ, AND STUDY
Online Bible Study Suite. Topical, Greek, and Hebrew study tools. Concordances, commentaries, sermons, and devotionals.
ABIDE CHRISTIAN MEDITATION APP
Christian Meditation Made Easy
Sleep better and stress less.
