Simple Life

MON., FEB. 13, 1984, 5:40 AM
FARM, STUDY

You watched a documentary last evening showing scenes from the life of a tribe of small African people, a life that was exceedingly simple by the standards of your society. How do I, the Holy Spirit, react to such a life. Hear, o son, as I tell you, while this warm, wet winter morning dawns.

Life was simple because there were few of these people. As populations increase there is a push toward more complexity, particularly in organization of society. But as a population is small it can maintain a simple life because My created earth provides the means for life without complex efforts. There can be more direct relations with My earth, with plants and animals, and that balance is pleasing to Me.

This is not to say that I disapprove of modern, complex cultures. No, I do not wish that all people live in small tribes, with the kind of simplicity pictured. The development of a complex medical establishment, high technology, and overlapping institutions has been interesting to Me. I see the values, and I acknowledge that some of those responsible for these development love and acknowledge Me and do what they do with genuine appreciation of My role in history and in individual lives. In this realm of complexity I allow rather that cause. I am not directly responsible for this move away from a simple life style.

You know that I have told you that I know the balance of these technological complexities. More people can live, can live longer, and can enjoy many luxuries that the simple life does not provide. Still, the waste from these processes builds with each day, and this is not good, finally, for the quality of life. There is a price to pay for the complexities you and others enjoy, and for some portions of the earth the price is high indeed. It would be most pleasing to Me if there were some definite moderation of the drives toward complexity and progress and satisfaction with a simpler life… though not in the extreme of these small, pictured people.

The key factor, of course, from My perspective, is relationship with Me, and I acknowledge that no style of life automatically brings genuine devotion to Me and to My ways. However, if one is to use My Holy Scriptures as the guide to life it is much easier when that life is closer to the style of Biblical times rather than ever “more modern”. As a people can know one another, trust one another, and acknowledge Me as the source of all that is life sustaining, regularly and corporately, then this is life of the highest quality. And it is easier to perceive My gift of a fresh pear, fresh peas, or Jerusalem artichokes than of a Big Mac or packaged synthetic food. When one can acknowledge that the technologies of the present and future are gifts from Me just as the obviously natural fruits are, then the advancements are properly balanced.. However, the ethic of science and technology is that man has created these modern wonders, which are quite an improvement over My natural world. It is not as likely that My Name shall be praised for these “improvements” on simple life.