HOW TO EMBRACE A LIFE OF PLAIN THINGS by Kendra Dahl for Core Christianity
I spent a lot of years believing the gospel was, “Follow your dreams!” God wants you to live out your full potential, they told me. So, despite having no plan, no money, no life experience, and no expertise, I quit college and moved to Los Angeles to follow my dreams. (More like follow my boyfriend. And the sunshine. Dreams are loosely defined at age 20.)
I left the church shortly after that, weary from all that work of dream-chasing, tired of feeling like a failure.
When I ultimately encountered the true gospel, it was radical Christianity that beckoned me. Pastors and authors invited me into a life that rejected the American dream and embraced the complete surrender of my time and resources. I sold what I could and put my house on the market, certain that my next step of faith would catapult me into a life of radical obedience (and extraordinary experiences).
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And really, it did. But not in the ways I imagined.
Marriage, parenting, and life and ministry in a local church—I never would’ve applied “complete surrender of my time and resources,” “radical obedience,” and “extraordinary experiences” to these ordinary aspects of life. Yet here I am, poured out like an offering, and—when I’m willing to step back and see it—blessed.
A Life of Plain Things
One Christmas, my sister gave me a simple gift: a picture frame containing the words to John 21:25. We share a love for words, and these are among our favorites:
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Besides the personal encounters and miracles that happened during Jesus’ public ministry that weren’t recorded, he lived 30 years in obscurity before emerging into the public eye. “What in your life won’t be recorded?” my sister asked in the accompanying note, “Far more than for Jesus. We do not need to fill volumes with great words or great deeds.”
