Not a Soap Box, but Soap and Boxes
Ray and I met a courageous man during a getaway to New Harmony, Indiana, this past weekend (I’ve written about New Harmony a couple of times before. A Trip to Utopia gives some background to this beautiful and tiny place; Utopia Revisited gives a bit of a disclaimer).
As we explored New Harmony’s tiny downtown on Friday afternoon, we decided to step inside a soap store. This was my first visit to a full-sized store devoted entirely to homemade soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and such. According to a sign inside, the proprietors make soap in the store every day.
Soon Ray and I were in a fascinating conversation with the store’s owner, a conversation about health and small towns and being entrepreneurs. I’ll call the owner Tim. We told Tim our story about writing homeschool curriculum, and Tim told us about how he and his wife ended up in tiny New Harmony making soap.
Tim and his family once lived in Louisville. Kentucky. As he and his wife neared their twentieth anniversary, they planned a trip to Tahiti to celebrate. A month before their planned departure, the couple learned that she had breast cancer. They knew that their dream trip was out of the question. Still wanting to go somewhere, Tim found a tiny ad about New Harmony in a magazine or newspaper; and they decided to make the two-hour trip from their home in Louisville to New Harmony.
Tim’s wife received treatments for breast cancer and has now been in remission for five years, but between her shocking diagnosis and the day Ray and I were buying soap in New Harmony, they have redefined their lives.
After that first trip, Tim and his wife began to return as often as they could afford to come. Tim would sometimes fly to China or Japan while working in his previous job. During flights, he would wrack his brain, “What can we do so that we can live in New Harmony?”
Finally they came upon the idea of a soap store and now they are living out their dream.
Tim and his wife decided to think “outside the box” so they could live outside the box. You are like Tim and his wife. When you decided to homeschool, you decided to take a step outside the box. I’m so proud of you!
Christians can serve God while living in Louisville and flying to Japan and China. They can serve Him in tiny New Harmony. What is important is that all of us examine, think, pray, and decide — and not simply “go through the motions.” We need to live on purpose and not simply conform to whatever the people around us are doing. And we need to teach our children to do the same.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2