THE COMPLEXITY OF BEING SIMPLE

Home at last!  After a great time visiting family over Christmas, we finally rolled into the driveway about ten o'clock at night. By eleven, I was still unloading.  I had carried in the endless bags of baby presents and and only needed to squeeze my bike into the garage before I could finally head in and collapse into bed.  No luck.  For Christmas, my brother had bought me a new set of handlebars, and it was those awesome, new handlebars that were preventing my bike from fitting into its usual space.  As I was bending, folding, and wiggling the bike into every possible position but to no avail, it dawned on me that oftentimes the things we "want" so badly in life to add completeness instead bring complexity and chaos. As Robert Downing said in 1855, maybe less really is more.


While we are told to be good stewards of all we have, having lots of stuff can be a great burden to say the least.  As any homeowner will tell you, it takes a great deal of water, effort and money to keep a lawn growing and green.  And all that so we can spend every other Saturday mowing it down to repeat the process again and again.  It's completely crazy!   In Matthew 5:8, Jesus offers these words, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."  Perhaps the reason so many of us struggle to see God's presence in our daily lives is that our vision is clouded by our heart's pursuit of other things, thoughts and desires to the point that we have to time, attention or affection to place anywhere else. 

Sometimes the sweetest things in life truly are the simplest.  For all of us, there will be undoubtedly be times of abundance and times of need.  It takes great faith and security in something greater that this world to find contentment in every season of life.  The Apostle Paul expressed this difficult reality when he wrote to the Philippians in 4:11-13 by saying, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."  Only by remembering that everything we see, touch, taste and hear comes from the mighty hand of God will we be able to see our earthly trappings for what they truly are- an avenue to spreads God's love and His glory to those who need it most.   

"I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why"

These timeless lyrics from this 1992 Alabama hit unfortunately depict the lives of far too many of us. People are hurrying today just like they were in 1992 and it was no different in Jesus' day.  Jesus was specifically to these hurried and busied people in Luke12:16-20 when he said, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

Perhaps the best way to experience true satisfaction in life is not by doing, buying, seeing, experiencing, tasting or trying the next greatest thing, or by building bigger barns to fill with our stuff, but by being still.  Still enough to see, contemplate and appreciate the greatness and holiness of our God. Only then will our vision by clear enough to stay fixed on the task and hand and our heart pure enough to live out that calling each and every day. 

Last edited ddb 1/23/13