Project 20:14 01

I am embarking on a new project that has been going on behind the scenes in my home for a few years.
This year, 2014, will be the year the biggest changes happen.  Having been on a "less is more" interiorly for a few years, stripping away the "busy-ness" of life, attempting to make room for God to move in more and more with each passing day, I have come to the crossroad of where my exterior life must now look like my interior life.

I have been feeling quite claustrophobic in my home the last year or so.  Allowing myself to slip into a sort of intolerance of my home, a quite ungrateful place to be, and seemingly wanting more...a bigger home.  A newer home.  A "nicer" home.  But the spirit has been working on me as well and the desire for this newer, bigger, and nicer home is not at all reflective of the simpler, "less" lifestyle that I am trying to achieve within.

Project 2014 is a multi-layered endeavor which I hope will bring me closer to the place I desire to be, the place I desire my family to be.

John 20:14 says
"She turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus."

"She" is Mary Magdalene.  I have been that Mary in my life.  I have thrown myself at His feet and prayed for His mercy.  And He has offered it to me overflowing!  And today, I find myself wanting earthly things to make me happy when I know, when I have experienced that love of Christ that is the only true contentment that I will ever have.  I have allowed myself to become blind to the Jesus before me in my own home.

Project 2014 will provide me to recognize Jesus in the blessings of my home.  My beautiful home complete with my beautiful family.

I will begin to declutter, de-own, and simplify.  I will organize the small bits I choose to keep and I will appreciate each and every item (I pray) that I leave in my home.  I desire to have my exterior life reflect my interior life and to allow that which no longer blesses me materially be a gift to someone else that it will/can bless.

I desire to appreciate my home and have my heart changed so that I no longer desire things but rather desire loving relationships that are life-giving.  I no longer want to maintain and care for things that do not proclaim my desire for only that which breathes life into my family.  I want to recognize Jesus in my midst.

Living with less will allow my family and I to spend more time with one another, enjoying the only commodity we can never buy more of.  Time.

Some blogs and web-sites that I have found helpful in this quest for a more intentional life are:

Becoming Minimalist
A Slob Comes Clean
The Simple Year

I am also embracing some very intentional direction with my nutrition and health.  My training will be "minimal" this year, instead, I will be embracing the moment I can maintain my health and if a race falls into place along the way, wonderful.  If not, that is ok too.

Project 20:14 will be a year long process, and truth be told, it will be a lifelong process.  I hope my posts will inspire something in you as well.