On Kitchens and Such

Tonight I went into the kitchen to get something to drink. Why did it seem our little tiny kitchen was bigger? Was something missing? Why did it feel that there was more open space? It was a nice feeling—our kitchen got bigger!

When we came back from Cherkassy where we lived in a big house for Ukrainian standards, we cooked in quite a large kitchen, bigger than the average American kitchen. Upon our return to kitchen, it seemed our kitchen had become a broom closet. But now it seems big.

We went to Zhitomir today to visit Lena’s family, and their kitchen is even smaller than ours (or at least it feels smaller). It’s more full and there’s actually not enough room for the refrigerator which sits in the hallway. By comparison, our kitchen then became bigger.

I then realized that all my complaining in the past about having a bigger kitchen is more about greed and envy than about the “need” for a bigger kitchen. Aren't most of our "needs" really ways we lie to ourselves in order to ease our spirits about conformity to the spirit of the World?

I've been reading Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines. I read it ten years ago but wasn't really ready for it. God has brought it back into my life and it's helping me make some much needed changes in the way I think about my "needs." Also, we are creating a new opportunity in Nivki church for deeper spiritual growth that will reflect this growing desire within many of us for something more than just attending church meetings.