Chotard Doll

Friends,

I find myself, in this inward-facing season of Lent, reflecting on Simplicity.  

I see Simplicity as an inward condition we outwardly express. Clearly that inward condition comes from God’s Holy Spirit within me, so Paul’s concern in 1 Corinthians today speaks to me:

We are God’s servants working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul was concerned about the divisions among members of his young church. But during Lent I’m concentrating on the divisions in my heart which draw me away from God.  So much of my life is founded on selfishness, masked as need. 

If Simplicity is defined as seeking the face of God, then the opposite would be idolatry, the setting up of something else as the Holy in my life.  Unfortunately I  know how easily we do that as human beings.  

So the Church has given us these 40 days to ask repeatedly: Does this action, these words, this line of thought further the presence of God in my heart and in the world? Or is it my own self-centered spirit at work? 

If I am “God’s field,” am I rich and fertile?  If I am “God’ building,” am I up to code? Lent is a fertile time to work on the foundation.  

Faithfully,  

—Chotard