Along with “Be still…” that I posted about yesterday, I have been thinking a lot lately on the meaning of simple and simplicity. Simple means elementary, easy, not involved, and not complicated. It also means childlike: “childlike trust”; “dewy-eyed innocence”; “listened in round-eyed wonder”.
2Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”
- Matthew 18:2-5
I know in my head that the world tries to make things more complicated than they are. The world bombards us all the time with marketing messages — you need this car, this 3000 square foot house for your family of 3, credit cards are the American way — The world truly loves to complicate things. I truly do complicate things, but I don’t like it anymore. My sinful-self wants the fastest computer; to eat out all the time; to have a nice big house; to drive a nice car.
I checked out several books from the library on how to live the simple life. Amazing to me when I picked them up that most of them were very thick books (over 400 pages). I laughed at myself for getting these because I don’t really need them to tell me how to live simply — I *need* to read my Bible. The Bible is the only book I need to tell me how to live.
Why make it more complicated than that?
