Simplicity

[Digging4Truth]

Years ago I had a minister speak these words to me.

"If you're not careful you'll miss the simplicity of Christ"

Those words have shaped my life from them until now and I am sitting here today being inundated with an undeniable realization that all good things come through simplicity.

Knowing my Christ is not difficult nor is it encumbered with all manner of measurements & rules. It is a simple thing to know Christ. So simple, in fact, that many miss it entirely.

The happiest life is the simple life.

Running 90 to nothing for the church & the soccer team doesn't make anyone happy. It just helps people run fast enough to not realize how unhappy they really are.

I feel more and more that peace is found in simplicity. A simple relationship with our God. Living a simple undemanding life. Living life with the simplest of our needs being met.

The big houses and fancy cars always seem to take more from us than they ever give back to us. They just place more demands on our already taxed life.

When I heard those words spoken to me years ago I thought he was just talking about my actual relationship with God. The rest of my life could be as complex as I wanted it to be.

For years I simplified my relationship with God but my life continued to drag me along.

As my life is beginning to slow down my relationship with my family is strengthened and has grown.

As our "pile o' stuff" decreases and the fancy things are sold off for simpler living other parts of my well being and who I am as a person are strengthened and I find more peace.

Today... by my choice... I have less than I have ever had in my life and I am happier than I have ever been. I am more at peace and I have the time and opportunity to share that peace with my family and we are stronger for it.

I must say thanks today to the minister who spoke those words to me so many years ago. I had no idea the eventual ramifications that those words would have in my life.

Like many others... I never realized that my relationship with God isn't just a one directional thing. To find the simplicity of Christ it requires that simplicity permeate my life.

Goodbye big city, fancy stuff and voluminous comforts... I am glad to have left you behind because, in some way, I find myself discovering a place whose builder and maker is God and, in this place, I find more peace and rest than I ever knew might be possible.

God is good... all the time.