Sometimes we might have to downsize in material things in order to upsize in our spiritual walk. If owning things, maintaining them, and worrying about losing them is stealing the things that matter most, like peace, joy, and fulfilment, it might be time to think about simplifying our lives. We may need to downscale on the things that don’t matter, so we can upscale on the things that do. Jenny Lind was an opera singer, known as the ‘Swedish Nightingale’. She had a successful career and became one of the wealthiest artists of all time. But she gave up her career at a time when she was singing her best, and she never returned to it. People made guesses about the reason, and wondered how she could give up all that applause, fame, and money. But Jenny seemed satisfied to live in privacy in a home by the ocean. One day a friend found her sitting on the sand with her Bible on her knees, looking out at a glorious sunset. As they chatted, the friend asked, ‘Madame Goldschmidt [which was Lind’s married name], how is it that you came to abandon the stage at the height of your success?’ She answered quietly, ‘When every day made me think less of this (laying a finger on her Bible), and nothing at all of that (pointing to the sunset), what else could I do?’ King David owned all the stuff we dream about, but he wrote: ‘I ask only one thing from the Lord. This is what I want: Let me live in the Lord’s house all my life. Let me see the Lord’s beauty and look with my own eyes at his temple’ (v. 4 NCV). Sometimes, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and readjust our priorities.
