How A Job-Outsourcing Has Enriched Our Biblical Minimalism Journey

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

(KJV)

Graphic Design by Zach Smith

After 35 years, 5 months in the banking industry, my husband’s steady, good-paying job was outsourced to an outside company, and he, along with his co-workers, lost their jobs.  In his last position, he worked from home 3rd shift in the IT Department, processing the data for 100+ bank branches.  We were warned about the outsourcing for months ahead of time, but when the night finally came for him to shut down his computer applications in his office space in our living room for the last time, we all gathered around and felt a tidal wave of mixed emotions.

This was a new experience.  In our nearly 30 years of marriage and long before we were married, he had had a steady job and had only changed work places twice —once when we made a long-distance move and once after a departmental downsize reduced his working hours to less than we could afford.  Both times, he stepped right into another position, so there was never even so much as a lapse between paychecks.  I had left my own career in banking several years before to raise and homeschool our son, Zach, so my husband’s job was our only source of provision.

As Zach and I stood behind my husband that night and watched him close out application after application on his computer, the realization that we were, for the first time ever, without an income hit us like a ton of bricks.  We knew we would be more than okay for a while, due to a very generous severance package from the bank and our savings, but what would happen after that?

What we didn’t know that night is there was a long line of unexpected health issues ahead of us that would keep both my husband and me from being physically able to work, along with several other life changes that would literally rock our faith to its core.  I think it is for the best that we are not told the future ahead of time.  It is enough to deal with what we need to face one day at a time.

Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 6:34, when He said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

The time of unemployment that began that night ended up stretching out for a total of 21 months to the day.  Thankfully, through much prayer and faith, we worked through the many health issues, walked through a series of hard times, and have made it to the other side.

During the 21 months that we were without a regularly earned paycheck, our minimizing journey took on a whole new meaning as circumstance forced my family and me to take an even closer look at not only our possessions as we came to terms with selling things that were not true necessities, but also at the people who were a part of our outer and inner circle.  If you are going through a similar time of difficulty and uncertainty, I hope the sharing of what we have learned will inspire and enrich your own minimizing journey.

1. Hard times inspire fresh examination of physical possessions.  There is nothing like a shut-off notice to motivate a minimizing re-start.  Threat of homelessness will cause you to realistically look at that extra vehicle with a new set of eyes and ask yourself, “do I really need to cling to this just because it belonged to a cherish loved one when letting it go would pay two months’ rent?”  Practicality and sensibility rise to the surface and overwhelm sentimentality during desperate times.

2. Hard times prove who deserves and who does not deserve to remain a part of your life.  Nothing reveals who truly cares about you more blatantly or powerfully than adversity.  Pay attention to the one(s) still close to you when the chips are down, you are struggling to keep your head above water, and it seems all hope is lost.  Identify who was there and who was not.  Who proved their love?  Who got their hands dirty?  Who showed up when everyone else turned away?  Who showed authentic compassion?  Cherish those who loved you when it was anything but easy.  Treasure those who stuck it out, held your hand, and withheld judgment.  The ones who show up and are still there after the storm has passed are the people who are true-blue and have earned the opportunity to occupy stall seats in your life’s gallery.   Minimize relationships with those who minimize you and the legitimacy of your predicament.  Shed liaisons with those who interject blame and condemn you for what they know nothing about.  Even in familial relationships.  Just because someone is a part of your family does not mean they should be a part of your life.

3. Hard times draw you closer to the ones you love most.  Leaning on the “true-blues” in your life through times of suffering strengthens bonds.  Drawing support from those who share your sorrow deepens connection.  Crying alongside those who are loyal through seasons of difficulty cements ties. Simultaneously experiencing pain and hardship solidifies camaraderie and a sense of shared accomplishment when the trial is over.

4. Hard times generate gratitude.  While that statement may sound contradictory, it is true.  Walking through days where it feels like your whole world is turned upside down makes you appreciate the immeasurable value of an ordinary day.  There is a wellspring of truth in the words of the song recorded by Dennis Marsh that says, “The Hard Times Make the Good Times Even Better.”  When dire necessity forces the sale of things you thought you could never part with, you realize you are left with what matters most because you still have each other.  Thankfulness emerges from the realization that no matter what you have lost and given up, as long as you are still together with the ones you love, all is well.

5. Hard times prove God's faithfulness.  It is easy to talk of "living by faith" and "trusting God" when paychecks are regular and substantial, 401k balances are increasing by leaps and bounds, and your bank account is secure.  But, what about the moment you realize every single safety net and back-up plan has been exhausted?  When your savings account shows a zero balance, the severance package is depleted, and all other means of financial support has been pulled out from under you, only God is left.  Then, and only then, are you in a position of being able to prove whether or not He will be faithful.  In that moment, you come face to face with the reality of finding out whether or not what you have "preached" and believed in for so long is really authentic.  Will God show up and supply your needs?

Living in the realm of the miraculous requires finding yourself in the place of the humanly impossible.

In 2015, during the time of our identity theft nightmare, so many times the Lord would whisper to me in prayer, "I want to be your all in all."  I would immediately say, "Lord, you ARE our all in all," only to feel instant conviction prick my heart as the untruth of my words washed over me.  A steady, good-paying job, credit cards galore, and money in reserve doesn't exactly paint a true picture of GOD Himself being one's "all in all."  As each source of self-sustenance was stripped from our grasp, we began to steadily learn what it means for God to be our one and only source.  Still here—standing on the other side, I can now say that God is faithful.  One day, perhaps He will inspire us to tell of the many ways He has proven His faithfulness and the fulfillment of His Word in our situation.

While we would never have asked for the downsizing of my husband’s job, what looked like a disaster in the beginning has deeply enhanced our walk with Christ and accelerated our Biblical minimizing journey in the most profound ways.

I don't know what you may be walking through, but I want to encourage you to keep looking up.  Keep pressing on.  Keep the faith.  You can trust God.  He has you in the palm of His hand.  He will not fail you now.  This song is my life anthem, and I promise you if you "lift your life up" in full surrender to God, He will absolutely prove Himself true and faithful to you in all of life's circumstances.  May He bless you and reveal His awesome power to you today!

Lift My Life Up - Unspoken

Put Your Fingers In Your Ears, and Press On!

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"  Romans 8:31

There are those in all our lives who do not share our vision of Biblical and/or minimal living.  There are also those who secretly long for what we are pursuing but are unwilling to pay the price and give up the things this kind of life requires, some of whose influence may sidetrack or derail us from our own mission.  We may find that there are few who really understand why we do the things we do, and it may feel like we are walking alone.  I think the thing we need to remember is that Jesus’ way of life has never been popular because it requires the denial of self and living in a way that is polar opposite to the way the world around us lives.

When I think of this fact, I often picture Christian in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim's Progress.”  As he began His journey toward the Celestial City, he was mocked by those who didn’t understand the radical stand he was taking and his yearning for the life he felt called to live.  As they taunted shouts of discouragement, Christian put his fingers in his ears and ran forward, crying out, “Life!  Life!  Eternal life!”  This is what we are all going to have to do if we are to run a successful race toward our heavenly home.  We must turn a deaf ear to those who try to derail us and attempt to persuade us to turn back to our old way of living.

There comes a point in all our individual Christian journeys where we must learn to identify the difference between God’s approval and the approval of others.  What others think of us is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.  Whether they applaud or dissuade our efforts truly shouldn’t have any effect upon the decisions we make or the path we take because God is the only one we are required to please.  It is His Word that we will be measured by when we stand before Him at the end of life.
The path toward Heaven grows increasingly narrow as we continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of who God is.  His holiness shines a consistent light upon our path revealing things about our nature that are contrary to His righteousness.  If He were to show us everything at the beginning of our response to His call to follow Him, it would overwhelm us to the point that we would never start.  If Peter had seen that following Christ would eventually cost him to be crucified upside down, could he have mustered the courage to say “yes” that first day of meeting Jesus and hearing His call to follow Him?  In that moment of Jesus’ original call, all Peter really knew is that he felt compelled to lay down his nets and way of life and walk away from it all to follow Jesus.  But, oh the things he ended up needing to learn and go through between that initial moment of responding to Jesus’ call and the moment he not only found himself facing crucifixion but even asking the soldiers to crucify him upside down because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner Jesus did!  As you read through the Gospels and the book of Acts, you can clearly see the gradual tempering process and transformation that took place in Peter’s life as Jesus and the Holy Spirit led him from conversion-level faith to the ultimate place of being able to willfully die a martyr’s death.

God understands our nature.  He created us.  He knows how much information we can handle at a time, and He gauges the pace of our revelation of light and understanding accordingly.  As we walk in the light He shines, we will often be misunderstood by those who are not living a Christian life.  The things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned.  I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him:  neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.”

When we completely surrender to Jesus and His call to live a life that is selfless and eternity-focused, we should never expect to receive accolades from the world around us.  We may as well expect to be misunderstood, talked about, confronted, and even scorned by the company of those who used to profess to care about us.  Jesus was persecuted and eventually killed by the most brutal, anguished means of death known to man.  Do we honestly think we will be widely accepted, well-liked, and popular among the masses if we go all in and follow Him wholeheartedly?  In John 15:18-20, Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:  but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord.  If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.”

I often come across the word “intentional” as I am perusing minimalism reading material, and it occurs to me that we will more than likely not be able to continue to stay the course and press forward in our path toward living the simple and minimal way Jesus lived without staying continually intentional and focused on eternity.  He must steadily increase, as we continually decrease.  (John 3:30)

In closing, I would like to share, once again, the two verses that I believe encapsulate what Biblical minimalism really means—“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Hebrews 12:1,2

The Most Important Relationship of All

I don't want to move on from the relational slice of the Whole-Person Pie© without giving due focus to the most important relationship in all of our lives—our relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ.  It all begins with "The Call"—that moment you first hear the Shepherd's voice, asking you to forsake all and follow Him—the moment that every subsequent moment points back to—the one that (however significant or inconsequential it seemed at the time) you later realize served as the catalyst that changed your life forever.  Our response to that call is the single most important decision we will ever make because that choice will ultimately determine where our never-dying soul will spend its eternity.

After making the decision to respond to Jesus' initial call by choosing to follow Him and pattern our lives after Him and the earthly life He lived, we will find that there are many subsequent "calls" as the road from earth to Heaven becomes increasingly narrow.  Each call presents a fork in the road as the call necessitates a response.  The motivation behind each of those ensuing calls is to pull us ever closer to and invite us into a deeper level of intimacy with Him.  His desire, all along this Christian journey, is that you and I would make a steadily-continuing shift from an earthly to an eternal focus.

It was one of these subsequent calls that spawned a deep-seated desire in my little family and me to follow Him yet closer and let go of anything and everything that kept us from whole-hearted surrender and service to Him.  A complete dedication to His purpose initiated our "launch out into the deep" on this path to what we have come to call "Biblical Minimalism©" and compelled us to sell our 4 bedroom, 3 bath, oversized 2-car garage home and let go of 90% of our personal physical possessions.

I don't know what your minimizing journey looks like but if we dig deep enough we will find the same root reason at the bottom of each Christian's desire to pursue a Biblical path to minimalism—we all intensely hunger for Him and long to live our lives like Jesus lived His.  We all yearn for the peace and simplicity that such a life affords.  We all want to let go of the things of this world for the sake of a higher call.  We want to run a successful Christian race unencumbered by the things of this world, free from the bondage to people and things, unfettered by selfish ambition and pursuits, unbound by the shackles of sin, and completely unchained to anything that is not like Christ.

I have often said that the one passage of Scripture that most fully encapsulates the meaning of Biblical Minimalism is Hebrews 12:1-2, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Along with that Scripture, there is a song that has been coming to mind that also encapsulates what Biblical Minimalism really means.

It is simply called, "Consecration."  Written in 1907 by Mildred E. Howard, its words are every bit as relevant today as they were 111 years when it was first composed.

Since Jesus gave His life for me,

Should I not give Him mine?

I’m consecrated, Lord, to Thee,

I shall be wholly Thine.

My life, O Lord, I give to Thee,

My talents, time, and all;

I’ll serve Thee, Lord, Thine own to be,

I’ll hear Thy faintest call.

I care not where my Lord directs,

His purpose I’ll fulfill;

I know He everyone protects

Who does His holy will.

Though He may call across the sea,

With Jesus I will go;

And tell the lost of love so free,

Till all His power may know.

My home and friends are dear to me,

Yet He is dearer still;

In my affections first He’ll be,

And first His righteous will.

My all, O Lord, to Thee I’ll give,

Accept it as Thine own;

For Thee alone, I’ll ever live,

My heart shall be Thy throne.

To say those words, and mean them from the heart, is truly a cry of surrender and total consecration.  Too many times, as Christians, we surrender some of ourselves to God.  We pick and choose the areas in which we want Him to have full control, and we hold Him at arms' length, reserving certain other parts to ourselves, attaching an invisible "off limits" sign.    If we are to run a winning Christian race, we have to give it all we've got, holding nothing back from the One who gave all for us.

Is there anything you are holding back from Him?  Is there any area of life where He doesn't reign supreme?  On any of the eight Whole-Person Pie© slices—the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial, occupational, and obligational—do you see a "No Trespassing" sign?

In closing, I want to share the lyrics to and video of another song that is so relevant to this discussion.  It is called, "The Secret Place" and was recorded by The Booth Brothers.  Please scroll down to hear Ronnie Booth's story of his and Michael's Dad's testimony followed by them singing this moving song.

THE SECRET PLACE

My heart is like a house,

One day I let the Savior in,

There are many rooms,

Where we would visit now and then.

But then one day He saw that door,

I knew the day had come too soon,

I said, “Jesus, I’m not ready,

For us to visit in that room.

‘Cause that’s a place in my heart,

Where even I don’t go,

I have some things hidden there,

I don’t want no one to know.”

But He handed me the key,

With tears of love on His face,

He said, “I want to make you clean,

Let me go in your secret place.”

So I opened up the door,

And as the two of us walked in,

I was so ashamed,

His light revealed my hidden sin.

But when I think about that room now,

I’m not afraid anymore,

‘Cause I know my hidden sin,

No longer hides behind that door.

That was a place in my heart,

Where even I wouldn’t go,

I had some things hidden there,

I didn’t want no one to know.

But He handed me the key,

With tears of love on His face,

And He made me clean,

I let Him in my secret place.

Is there a place in your heart,

Where even you won’t go?

The Secret Place ~ The Booth Brothers