Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God

"The Simple Life" explores the struggles that many people nationwide face when trying to simplify their lives and make more time for the really important things (God, family, etc.). Among the thoughts and topics covered include: 1. Our obession with time has become unhealthy and God is being ignored. 2. Some people fill their days with busy activities as an effort to compensate for an empty life. 3. Meaningful relationships result when we seek the best for others and do not seek to use other people for only our benefit. 4. Our financial conditions usually result from our self-identity. 5. An intentional mission statement with a clearly defined process will help simplify life. 6. Nothing can move the congestion out of our lives like prayer. 7. Embrace who God made you to be and use that to mold your simple life. 8. Summarization of the process for a simple life (clarity, movement, alignment, focus). The title does contain Bible verses as the foundation on which to build a simple life. "Simple Life" also includes many good points such as those listed above and many others not mentioned. I would have liked to have seen more specific actions the reader can take to make life more simple. Some good titles come to mind for dealing with this important issue: Freedom Tyranny of the Urgent (Hummel), The Overload Syndrome (Swenson), and Simplify Your Life (Wright). If you are looking for more specific action steps to take, then I recommend these titles. Still, "Simple Life" is a good read. Recommended.

I was hoping the "slow" economy would cause people to stop and think about their lives. Especially all of the money they waste on things they don't need, busyness that they create then complain about, the lack of time they create. People need to slow down and drop the high school mentality of trying to be cool, buying stuff to fit in and thinking that being busy somehow makes our children better people. Grow up already. This book describes what should be obvious to all, but obviously it's not obvious. The "simple life" doesn't mean living in a hut or a yurt and eating rice cakes and wearing burlap, it means actually living and not waking up some day when you're 80 wondering where all the time went and what you have done with your life. It means not trying to be like everyone else and trying to be something you're not. It means putting family and friends first. This book also gets into how you are meant for more than just being caught in the mindless rat race. See the books of John Eldredge for more on this, or start with his The Ransomed Heart: A Collection of Devotional Readings which is collection of 365 excerpts from many of his books. For more on how technology and the world can sometimes hider your life, see Better Off : Flipping the Switch on Technology. Stop pretending and start living.

Simple Life by Thom and Art Rainer is the book you've been looking for to help you get your life under control. The authors are father and son who previously wrote the popular Simple Church. They focus on four major areas where readers need to simplify their lives: time, relationships, money, and God. Then they break down those goals into four areas: clarity, movement, alignment, and focus. Through several surveys and studies they determined where people are feeling the crunch of being stretched too thin without having quality relationships in their lives. Using these studies and Christian principles, they offer the opportunity for hope for real change. There are a lot of books that promise to fulfill just one of the goals of Simple Life; the Rainers do it better and all in one book.

I just finished reading Simple Life, and I highly recommend it for you if you feel like you are too busy, or if you are trying to find focus in your life. The authors surveyed over 1,000 people and kept hearing that people were busy, stressed, nervous, and without a clear direction. The areas that needed the most work in the survey respondents were time, relationships, money and God. The authors propose that with clarity, movement, alignment and focus you can achieve the Simple Life. This is good stuff. I definitely recommend this book.

"Simple Life" is the new book from Thom and Art Rainer, and it is definitely not about the exploits of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. It continues the thought and application of the "Simple Church" book from Thom Rainer and Eric Gieger, but here the focus is on cleaning away the clutter of your personal life rather than your congregation's. The book's thesis is simple: We were not created to have miserable joyless lives. We were created to have abundant and joyful lives. But for most of us, such a life is elusive at best and seemingly impossible at worst. The book is an analysis of 41 questions asked to 1,077 people. The takeaway was that most people want to simplify their lives in 4 areas: time, relationships with others, money, and their relationship with God. The book's prescription for the simple life is also in quantities of 4. They recommend clarity, movement, alignment, and focus. Towards that end, and what I see as one of the most profound truths offered in the book, they say this: What is true in many churches is true in many lives. Activities are replacing purpose. We are so busy doing activities that we are neglecting what really matters. And most of you don't really need this book to address this reality. You already know it...Often activities replace the important matters that help relationships grow. Having said all that, the book is pretty practical in helping people clear away the activities (even the good ones) that are making their life overly complicated. Each chapter ends with a task or checklist to help you find simplicity in each of the four prescripted areas. Included also are interviews and testimonials with some of the people who have walked the path of simplicity ahead of the reader. Their honesty is helpful. However, the testimonials are one of two criticisms I have of the book. Many times, they are inserted without much of a warning. You will be reading the authors discussion of alignment or focus and then a testimony will begin. I generally think they are helpful, but sometimes it takes a second to figure who is speaking. My other criticism is that the authors continually recommend 3 products: "The Love Dare," "Fireproof," and "Facing the Giants." While the lessons from these products are relevant and applicable, at times, they feel like extended advertisements for products at Lifeway bookstores. If a person were to read this book with a desire for real change, it could really help. Perhaps it could persuade someone to change, but like the authors said, you don't really need this book to address that reality. But I cannot imagine if someone was willing to do all the work at the end of each chapter, it wouldn't make a big difference. If you want to pursue simplicity, read this book. You can find more information from the authors at [...] Gordon Duncan: www.jgordonduncan.com