1 Thessalonians 4:10-12

Editor’s note: The following message is good and wholesome for all of us living during this Recession. It just goes to show that God will provide even during a recession.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

By American standards, our simple, rustic, debt-free way of life is likely a bit peculiar to most. But after four years of being duly sifted through the economic threshing machine, we’ve learned how to survive and even thrive in the pioneer lifestyle God has carved out for us in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest.

It was our family’s relocation saga. We endured massive lay-offs, two new jobs, long-term family separations, real estate woes, and multiple moves. So one year ago, when we purchased some acreage and a roughed-in home, we counted chief among our blessings the fact that we were together under the same roof.

Well, actually at first we weren’t under the same roof because for a couple of months, my husband slept in the tool shed and our young son and I slept in the overhang of the horse trailer.

God really worked over our hearts. He changed our idea of what a person needs in order to be happy.
Our main “appliance” for nine months of the year is a wood cookstove. It is our sole heat source; I use it for all of our cooking needs, including percolating our coffee. While we do have a front-loading washing machine, we don’t have a functioning dryer, which means we stand our clothing racks beside and behind the cookstove to dry wintertime laundry.

Since we live well beyond the county’s official road maintenance zone, we are responsible for snow removal, not only for our driveway, but also for our share of the county road. After a nighttime storm, my husband gets up at 4:00AM to plow before he leaves for work. If things get ugly during the day, I plow out a trail so he can return home that evening.

And bath time? If we want to soak in a tub, we do it in the summer. Outside. When we bought this place, it was pre-plumbed for a shower (in the garage of all places), but not really set up for a tub, so we do our splashing and soaking in a 100-gallon horse trough. We fill it by morning’s early light, and by sundown it’s warm enough for a bath. Not hot, mind you, but warm enough.

For us, and likely the majority of pioneers before us, a simple life has nothing at all to do with a cushy, sedentary life; no sir, no ma’am, quite to the contrary. But it does have to do with leading the life God has set before us: ”to lead a quiet life so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

We’ve been threshed through the relocation machine. As a result, my family has gleaned an appreciation for one another, and for how God continues to provide for our most basic needs (and then some).

Hard work and simple ways ain’t so bad after all.

Simply Darlene