A Plain Life - Scott Savage

“The modern says: ‘I can make myself any persona I choose. I am infinitely moldable and adaptable, the master of my own fate.’ The plain Christian replies: ‘While it’s true you can remake your facade and your personality, the real you, your soul—is still the same, and still in need of God’s grace to be transformed.’” — Scott Savage, A Plain Life

I like many others have always had a curiosity surrounding the “Plain People” such as the amish, old order mennonites, bruderhof, &c. There also exists, although small in number, plain quakers. In “A Plain Life” Scott, one of these plain quakers, brings us on his walk across Ohio to follow through on the leading from Christ that he must turn in his driver’s license.

On Scott’s journey he dedicates each day to contemplation of the beatitudes and reflections on a plain life. He also gives insightful commentary on the plain people around him, the visitors to the community, and his family. It is good to have a work acquinting us with a plain life that can feel so far away.

One of the themes that remains throughout the book is steadfast obediance to faith and how that obediance looks for Scott’s family. Scott has written out a very good example of what it means to put Christ at the center of our lives.

Scott writes on what it means to lead a simple and plain life, what it means to obey Christ in those leadings, and the detailed process of faith that brings someone adopting simplicity so prevalent that their entire lives change in allignment with it.

If it has not been made clear already, I recommend this book greatly, while it has not made me take up the plain life seen in the plain people, it has given me much to mull over. There is an importance in keeping our attention set to God in the simple things and allowing ourselves to take the long way, whether that be doing laundry by hand, cleaning dishes by hand, or forsaking various other conveniences to free our minds and put our hands to work.

I encourage thee to buy this book used