Simple Things

“…the simplicity that is in Christ.” —2 Corinthians 11:3

We live in a complicated age. Take the telephone for example. A few decades ago all you did was pick up the receiver from a clunky unit on your desk, put your finger in a rotary dial and to twist it to make your call.  Later the rotary dial was replaced with push buttons. Today you can carry a tiny cell phone in your pocket that can do thousands of things besides making a “simple” phone call.

I like the simple things of life:  Watching a humming bird drink from a feeder outside my window…  cuddling with my wife of 44 years… playing with my two aging rat terriers… reading a book… reminiscing over a photo album… mowing the lawn… visiting with friends… walking to work and around the neighborhood… smelling a flower along the way. Annie Dillard said this, “If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.”

The secret of simple living is removing the clutter from your life. The more stuff you have, the more complicated your life will be.

The most profound truths are simple truths. There is no denying that there are some complicated portions in God’s Word that require a great deal of study.  But there are also many, many simple truths that require only a simple child-like faith.  For example, the truth of salvation in Christ.  While God’s work in salvation is complicated, our acceptance of it is as simple as looking (Isa. 45:22) or walking through a door (John 10:9).  We simply believe the Gospel and we are saved forever (1 Cor. 15:1-4). That is why it is called “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation.” It is “religion” that makes salvation complicated.  We must heed Paul’s warning lest our “minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 

Edgar A. Guest said it nicely in this simple poem:

God grant that I may live upon this earth

And face the tasks that every morning brings

And never lose the glory and the worth

Of humble service and the simple things.