Simplicity

The thing that I long for most in life is simplicity.

When did things become so complicated? Why did they have to be so complicated? I don't think that when God created life He meant us to make it so complicated. I don't think that was His intention. I think he wanted to leave all of the complicated stuff up to Him--and let us just live. Live in His presence, live in His joy, live a simple and fulfilled life.

And then we went and messed it all up. We wanted to be God. We didn't want someone else to be in control. We wanted to do it for ourselves. And so we tried to be God.

I think that is where complexity all started, and where it continues on today. When we try to be God. When we take matters into our own hand. When we take control of our own lives, our own finances, our own plans. When we don't trust God enough to be in control. When we feel like we can do it better ourselves. When we don't hand enough over to God. Then things become complex.

If we, myself included in this, were to live each and every day as though God was in control then things wouldn't be so complex. I think so often our stresses in life result from us not trusting God. We don't feel as though God can take care of things. And so we take matters into our own hands. We try to run it ourselves. And then it all becomes complex.

I don't know anything about cars. Not a lick. That was never something that interested me. Now if my car broke down, I could do one of two things. Either I could try to fix it myself--get under the hood, and play with some nozzles and levers and see if I could get it started again--or I could hand it over to a mechanic, the expert, and have him take care of it. If I were to mess around with it myself, there is about a one in a million chance I could fix it--but chances are, I will only make it worse. If I hand it over to a mechanic, I have no doubt that he could fix it. After all, this is what he does. He is an expert at fixing cars.

And that's what God is. He is an expert at our lives. He created them. He knows every intricate detail of them. He knows not only our lives, but he knows that of everyone else's. And he knows how they're going to affect ours. And if I were to just stop trying to fix things myself, taking things into my own hands and trying to work them out, then things would become simple again.

You see, a car is inherently simple to me. Really, it is. I stick my key in it and turn it and it works. Every once in a while I need to go to a gas station, and stick a nozzle in a hole and pull a trigger. But even that is simple. There's a little light that appears telling me when to do it. There is no guesswork. It's easy.

Now you talk to a mechanic, and a car is inherently not simple. It is complex. There are a million things going on inside of, a million things that have to work just right for it to even get me out of my driveway.

But I don't need to worry about that. That's for him to figure out. He's the expert. I just need to do what I'm told, and the car keeps working. It's that simple.

And that's how life should be. All I need to do is hand the keys over to God. And life will become simple.

I think I'm going to try that today.