Devotion 404 - Simple

I am an absolute expert in making things hard.

If you want to know how to do something the most complicated way possible, come to me.

I will write you a thesis, but first of course I will need to find the right pen, the right paper and have my desk in order.  Then maybe, and I do mean maybe, I will get down to business.

Case in point.

 

If I feel led to make a meal for someone in need.  I haul out all kinds of recipes.  I consider what ‘goes together.’  I reflect on the family’s likes and dislikes, the ages of the children and exactly what time of day I can deliver the meal, if it can be hot out of the oven and if instructions are required for warm up.

 

Then, because my husband loves me, he suggests we drive through Boston Market.

Complicated is pretty much my mantra. And this is why the Lord saw fit to pair me with someone spontaneous. After almost thirty years of marriage, I still have trouble spelling the word, much less living it.

There is nothing wrong and sometimes some really good in planning; it is the pause that is the problem. The pause that planning creates when following after the things the Holy Spirit is leading us to do.

If you look at Jesus, He and His life were simple. He was simplistic in direction, in purpose and in pursuit.

I can take the most simplistic thing and make it so stinking hard.

 

I have been concerned, truthfully very concerned about politics of late. I email congressmen and senators and I pray HARD.  I stay up late at night thinking about the world we will be leaving our children and grandchildren. Just recently, as a family, we have started to invest in very small ways to help sustain the refugees of terrorism.

This is all good and perhaps even Holy, but it is far away.  The truth is simple often starts near.

Near as in a neighbor, near as in a friend, near as in deciding every morning to find opportunities to bless or engage or pray.

I look at my neighbor building his deck next door and decide I am going to bake him cookies.  Before long, I find myself with no cookies out in the front yard.  He sees me and says hello.  I realize the very best I can offer is not calories but encouragement.  

Simple. 

I saw someone, someone that went to our church over a decade ago. I realized their leaving missed my notice. I can’t remember when it was, what the circumstances were.  I suddenly over compensated wondering if my not noticing was noticed and should I even say hello.  I could have feigned that I didn’t see him at all.  I can be very good at that.

The words of every Mitford novel I have ever read rushed through my head.  The main character, Father Tim, starts every morning with the simple phrase,  “Help me to be a blessing to someone.” 

At the moment, ‘blessing’ seems at the far end of the complicated spectrum so I went with simple.  I said hello and conversation ensued. 

It was not me, far from it.  It was a move across country and a debilitating illness.  This gentleman was far from angry, not even resentful, perhaps missing church and missing fellowship.  I promise to pray and I mean it.

Perhaps this is the essence of the poverty of spirit.  Eliminating the stuff that weighs us down and operating in the simple.  Not even blessings, but grace, abundant grace. Grace that walks in by making ourselves available; simple and straightforward obedience to be in the moment.

I heard the words of a preacher.  He said make a ripple in the water where you stand.  If we all dip our toes in and if we all act in kindness and react in grace, then if we all quit being crusaders of the complicated perhaps the simple message of the gospel will seep out. 

Then my ripple will bump into yours and we will have a wave of grace. And perhaps all the stuff that weighs us down will suddenly not seem so heavy.

I am convinced the essence of salvation starts with simplicity.  The glory of grace starts in the giving of one’s mind to the present.  It is the making oneself available to the work of the Holy Spirit and the surrendering of the soul to things far greater than ourselves.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3