Some people make things entirely too hard. Take Geometry for example. Whatever happened to 1+1=2? Why did they have to go and make things so stinkin’ difficult by adding fractions, angles, hypotheses, and all that other hard junk stuff? Can you tell math was not is not my subject? You know what is really bad as a parent?
When your daughter in 7th grade comes to her father and says, “Dad, will you help me with my homework?” “Sure honey, what is it?” “Math.” “I would like to recommend that you see someone else (give her a name).” Now…I bet you are thinking that happened to me. Right? Be honest. YOU. WOULD. BE. RIGHT!! 🙂 My much-smarter-than-me oldest daughter was the culprit. I think she planned it, to be honest with you. But I have to be careful what I say since she does read this when she has time. 😉
I had a double whammy hit me though. Not only did she ask me to help her and I couldn’t, my girls found my high school grade card! WOW! Talk about the loss of respect power to tell them they needed to get their school work done. I had two A’s that year. Two high-powered A’s. They carried so much weight it was unbelievable. No, not chemistry (that was a disaster). No, not Trigonometry (that was the sinking of the Titanic in duplicate). No, not Spanish 3 (no habla espanol to this day). No, not Advanced Biology (a career as a doctor was out of the question). No…my two A’s were in courses that would take me places: Driver’s Ed and Phys. Ed. I was relegated to either driving or running wherever I needed to go. 🙂
Simple made hard. Seems the church is often guilty of the same thing. The simple grace of Jesus put down in rules and regulations that I seriously question whether Jesus Himself could keep them all. It is a fair statement that not even the early church could. Check out Acts 15:7-11 (especially verse 10). We do it other ways also. We make believing so hard sometimes. We get so caught up in the peripheral junk that we lose sight of our goal: Jesus. Take a moment (1 minute) and watch this. Check out its simplicity and the simplicity it seeks to bring people to.
http://youtu.be/xlH5I2IzRNc
What was your take-away from that video? How can the church learn from it? What can the church learn from it? I’d like to hear your thoughts. And, in case you think I am off-target, check out Pete’s post here.
It’s very easy for me to forget to “keep the main thing, the main thing.”
I’ve been in churches that blench when the phrase “social justice” is mentioned, and churches that glow when it is mentioned, and keep adding ways to do more of it. Somewhere between Jesus saying, “Follow me,” and the ever-growing lists of “this is what it means to follow Jesus and if you aren’t doing it this way, you may not (or worse, you are not) be doing it “right.”
Maybe it’s human nature to complicate things. Whatever it is, I know that it is very easy for me to get distracted from that “One Thing.” I can tell when my focus has shifted from “Follow Me” to doing stuff – I end up completely exhausted physically, emotionally, and most especially spiritually – no peace.
Your first line says it all Susan. And you have really said a mouthful when you give a pretty good wrap-up of the church situation. Thanks for a thoughtful comment.
Yep. We believe in bikes.
I don’t need to know how the bike works. I don’t need to know how long the bike has been around. It’s a bike. It’ll help you from point a to b.
simple is good.
love Jesus.
love people.
Bill – I’m with you on the math stuff. I fear I will not be much help to my 7th grader this year. My head hurts when I look at his math book!
Hey Craig! You think your head hurts now, just wait! 😀 Simple is good. Thanks.
I am often confused that when the Son of Man came to this earth, the religious folks didn’t think He was good enough. Too liberal. Too simple, Too… different.
If Christ was rejected and couldn’t live up to the standards of that culture, why do we often do the same. Simplicity rules.
The message of Christ is not difficult, it’s spiritual. We often make it too hard.
*love the video. You are such a bike junkie. I love it!
Totally agree Moe. The message of Christ is not difficult. And on that last statement? Guilty as charged. 😛 Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Hi Bill,
I took a look at the Pete Wilson link you gave here, and I looked at Universalism under Wikipedia online. Things are becoming more and more and more challenging if the church is going to rely on trying to sort these things out through intellect and theology alone.
Many if not all of these streams of thought and beliefs are using the scriptures to verify their thinking.
I have a friend who says that there are many applications to the scriptures in the Bible but only one interpretation. In our day the interpretations of the scriptures in the Bible are varying on a spectrum too.
I think that if we get our lives on track so to speak, (being very careful about what we are doing and what we are involving ourselves in) like you say here…. we need to keep things simple… live a more simple life. Make time for our walking and talking with God. Make time for reading scripture.
We seem to be moving into more desperate times …truth is harder to discern and recognize. We are likely going to have to rely on the Holy Spirit more and more… this means that we need to get to know Him and experience Him.
Obey the scriptures, obey what God tells us to do. Begin a relationship of prayer with Him. Not a prayer list only, but a prayer relationship with Him. Talking and communing with Him.
We may be trying to hear the voice of God among a lot of other voices. If we can eliminate some of those voices by living more simply that will be good.
“We believe in the power of giving back, and we believe in the power of not giving up.” I think that is powerful. I think the church’s main gaol is giving back. To the community, to the region, to the world. We must believe that Jesus can change lives. ANd we must not give up!
The thing that came to mind is that the journey is important.
I think the church often focus on heaven (which is not a bad thing) and too little time with being and serving here on earth. We should have a focus on heaven and the eternal reward but not have it hold us back from accomplishing great things here on earth.
Great post!