#3. Think deeply, live simply.

I am honestly addicted to learning, to constant intake. So podcasts are just death to me…and joy at the same time. I currently have 485 active podcast episodes on my Ipod. I love to think and listening or reading makes me think and we so seldom think deeply. There is something amazing about hearing an educated person speak of a Christian view of economics, for example, when he or she is able to explore one simple point for an hour.

I stole a phrase from Ken Myers and like to say that I have the gift of bibliography. For me that means that I cannot think without recalling what I have read. My mind immediately spiderwebs out to include a book, a page and where that book is on my library shelf. It kind of a curse.

The most prominent book on my shelf is the Bible. Actually Bible(s) – 20 copies in 4 languages. So my spiderweb always centers around God who has revealed Himself and His way in the Bible. I cannot think about coffee without thinking about Jesus. This is how deep thinking becomes simple living for me. The greatest commands of Jesus are to love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. (Now, God gets to define what he means by love, but that is a topic for another day).

My point – and how this becomes a plumb line for who I am and how I live is this – the more deeply I think about God, about economics and about coffee, the more I will live in love for the real God and for real people. That is what I mean by living simply. Everything else is secondary.