A simple man?

Job 19
Mark 1, 2

SOAP - A simple man?

Scripture
Mark 1:6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey.

Observation
Well, I thought I could find some "cool" scripture that would stand out to me. But for some reason I kept coming back to this. It's a brief description of John's clothing and what he ate. One of our study Bibles says the clothing is significant because it was exactly like Elijah's and there is scripture saying God would send Elijah back. The rest of our study Bibles also say it's like Elijah's clothing and that both wore that clothing in contrast to the flowing robes of the religious leaders. John's clothing is mentioned in one study Bible as a statement against self-indulgence. And in another it says his clothing and way of life was the beginning of the "gospel spirit", a spirit of self denial and non-conformity to the world.

Application
I guess the appeal to me here is in the simplicity and the self denial, or lack of self indulgence. And it's applicable to all aspects of life, not just my clothes and my food. There are lots of areas in life where I'm likely to embrace an attitude of self indulgence. Sometimes that comes from a desire to fit in to society in a certain way. Sometimes it comes from an attempt to fill some void that I've probably created by neglecting prayer, and God in general. Sometimes life just gets kind of overwhelming and my temporary solution is to indulge myself in something... buying some fun new hiking/camping equipment, going out for lunch instead of eating the sandwich I brought from home, sitting down on the couch to watch football all day when I know there are things that need to be done, etc. I think there are times when all that stuff is ok, but not when we are struggling with something we should take to God in prayer, and instead we try to solve it at Gander Mountain with a new fleece and a camping stove. And of course as I said earlier, this carries over into lots of other areas of life. It just occurred to me that another way I indulge myself when I get overwhelmed is by going on a little mini vacation. Hmm... as usual my thoughts are just kind of randomly jumping around. I wonder if God is trying to get something thru to me here. I feel like maybe there is some relationship between self-denial and being able to have self control. Of course there is. I ask God for help a lot with self control in how I react to situations in life. But yet I think I'm pretty lacking in self-denial in lots of little ways. Maybe there are some places where I need to practice more self denial and that will help me have better self control too.

Prayer
Dear Lord...