Simplicity

It all started with dear Emerson from Pide Piper. I, of course, was meddling in his buisness and asking why he was mad at the world at the time, and at one point he said that he wished everything was simple like it was in middle school. So, being a good girl and all, I think “Well, following Christ makes EVERYTHING more simple.”

I suppose what lead me to that thought was that he was talking about all of these complications of the world that just distract us from Christ and that worry us, things that if we trust God with, will melt away (or so it says in Matthew 11)

But it ISN’T that simple, is it? I' was never saying it would be easy, I’m talking simple. Follow scripture = simple. Live by rules = simple, right? Then you look at all of these theological debates and fights and all out denomination splits over the ‘simple’ stuff, but in all honesty, look at the scripture and do what it says.  Love those who hate you, witness to those around you by loving God and being a light, forget the weird stuff of the world like drugs and sex and such.

It’s not easy. I never said  it was easy. But there you have it. Can I dumb it down for you any further than that? At least, those are the answers to the things he was talking about. (And no, I didn’t say exactly that to him)

It’s interesting, how we water things down. Like with my ‘almost no carb’ diet. First week, I’m alright, I’ve got this. Now, I’ve had almost 3 desserts in the past 3 days. (Not cool) It starts with a ‘Oh, this isn’t so bad,’ and an ‘I’m allowed to do this…’ and don’t forget the ‘just one’ that turns into ‘just two’ that turns into ‘what’s another gunna hurt if I’ve already had this many?’ How is it any different than what we do here when we hear the simple diet?

“No sex.”

‘Well, it won’t hurt if it just do this with him…’

“Don’t lie.”

‘You know it’s for their own good if I just say…’

“Don’t swear.”

‘Crap is'n’t such a bad word, is it?’

Is it?

“Give to the poor.”

‘Are they really poor?’

“Help the orphan.”

‘I’ve got that car loan…’

“Give to those who need you!”

‘I can’t!’

Liar.

“Love those who hate you!”

‘Why should I?’

“Because I said so.”

‘And?’

It’s this entire back and forth chase, what can I get away with? Well, if He didn’t stop me from doing this, then why not?

And if we’re not doing what God says, i.e. worshiping with our lives, then what are we doing the bidding of? Who or what are we worshiping? I read Neil Gaiman’s book “American Gods” a couple of years back, and it just came back to me tonight. It’s set up so each god exists if someone worships it, and it is only as strong as how many people worship it. The old school gods have been forgotten and now the new gods are coming into power, the American Gods. T.V., money, sex, drugs, fame, all sorts of gods are, of course, coming to power as people devote themselves to them.

I’ve heard preachers speak on this kind of topic, heard them talk about how we devote our time on other things instead of God, and therefore worship them, how we dedicate our lives to silly things. I’m not sure it’s ever hit me like this before though. The more we feed these things with our devotion, you know the more they grow in our lives. How big is our devotion to food? How much time and thought do we spend on our clothes? Do we work so hard, so many hours of days of years making money for ourselves to hoard or spend on frivolous things, or do we give to those who REALLY need it?

Jeeze, I’ve been convicted of this so many times, but when will it really hit that these things can’t be our gods and we can’t spend so much of our short lives on them! They stay here! Just fyi, they don’t last and they won’t make us happy. I’m honestly scared that if I give too much I won’t have enough for myself, I’m not smart enough and don’t have enough self control to trust myself with that kind of slim money. I will save until the future and give what I can then, when everything is sorted, but until then, I need to focus on the important. I need to make sure I know who God is and what is not.