Ockham's Razor

"entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem."

Or, translated from Latin to English, "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity." This phrase was made famous by William of Ockham, a 14th-century English Friar, and has become known as Ockham's Razor. Ockham proposed that, all things being equal, the simpler solution is usually the best one. This thought stands in stark contrast to the frantic, fragmented lives of most 21st century Americans. We multiply everything beyond necessity. It's almost an American virtue: the more/bigger/busier/

flashier/faster the better. Eventually, though, we find ourselves trapped by our excesses, and enslaved by our own schedules and the demands of maintaining "the good life." Richard Foster describes it this way in his book Freedom of Simplicity: "We feel strained, hurried, breathless. The complexity of rushing to achieve and accumulate more and more frequently threatens to overwhelm us. It seems there is no escape from the rat race."

I love the "razor" tag used to describe Ockham's idea, as if an actual razor could shave all the excess from life. I believe Christian simplicity is just such a razor. Simplicity is an actual calling of the Christ-life, and a gift of Christ. Jesus lived a simple life (and not just because he lived in AD 30). Even among skeptics he's considered one the world's greatest teachers, yet his teachings are characteristically simple and straightforward. He summed them all up in one statement: love god with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. He authored no books, and had only a small band of followers as his strategic leadership team. He provided almost no organizational structure for his church, though it was charged with carrying his message around the world.

At the Springs, we're recapturing Christian simplicity in our lives and in the church. We're actually advocating less involvement in "church activities" as modern people understand that term, and returning to the activities of Jesus and the first century church: things like shared meals, home gatherings and serving those in need (usually the first thing to go in our busy lives). We're helping people find the life Jesus promised by learning how to cut through all the things that compete for our time, talents, and resources, and letting Christ redirect our energies in a simpler way. The Houston Profile Project compiled data on the lifestyles of people in our community, and found that less than 28% of residents believed they were successful at balancing the demands of work and family. This tension was also a leading cause of family dissolution--parents and kids, husbands and wives chasing life in multiple directions at once and never quite catching it. We believe that Christian simplicity is a direct answer to this problem. In my next post, I'll describe what that looks like in my own life, and how we're living out the value of simplicity as Christians and as a church.