Simplicity has been a central part of who I am for as long as I can remember. Since having less didn't seem to fully satisfy me, however, somewhere in my 30s I began to wonder if I wasn’t looking for more than just being a minimalist. I spent decades mulling this over in my head. Then, finally, in 2017, when I was 67, while working on a 6'x12’ canvas I had a major breakthrough!
The insight that changed everything came down to this: For me, simplicity is a metaphor (!) for something much deeper than having fewer possessions. It's not less stuff I’m after, it's less of me ( interior simplicity, kenosis/self emptying) - and more of Christ! This was a huge spiritual insight that shook me to my roots and took me years to process.
Now 75, I have come to understand that this self emptying thing is not just a new insight it is a personal commission, a vocation/a calling, requiring action on my part! So how on earth do I decrease and allow more of Christ to live in me? The answer that jumped into my head just this week completely surprised me: Pray the Jesus Prayer!
When I pray the Jesus Prayer I now understand that by letting go of myself, detaching from everything around me, and whole heartedly putting myself at the feet of Christ in deep repentance I am, in fact, “practicing full in radical self emptying!
My fervent hope is that praying daily, the practice of self emptying to make more room in me for God's presence will become my daily habit, leading me to the true simplicity I have always desired. O the joy!
*Jesus Prayer - Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner is the full form of the prayer. I usually reduce this to Lord, have mercy.
