simplicity

i've said it before, but it bears saying again. i really do want to live a simple life... but the reality is that in the everydayness of actually living, my life becomes anything but simple time and again.

today, i've had two great reminders of the simplicity that i crave. the first was from today's entry in my utmost for his highest...

the people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and "the lilies of the field"— simply and unaffectedly. those are the lives that mold and shape us. {Oswald Chambers}

and the second from Tolstoy...

there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.

i want to influence people, to help them further along the path back to God. i want to be great, not in a worldly, celebrity sense, but the kind of greatness that matters on the other side of eternity.

it seems that my challenge is to remember that without simplicity, the things that i really want in life move beyond my reach.

now to figure out how to remind myself in the midst of living...