Keep it Simple

03/26/2004

We love to complicate things, don't we? I don't think life is supposed to be that complicated! I don't think that is the way God designed it back in the Garden. I believe He designed a life for Adam and Eve, and also for future generations, with fewer complications than we seem to experience today.

You might say, "Of course it was less complicated for Adam and Eve there was no sin to deal with." Exactly!! No sin. It had not been "discovered" yet. The fruit was still on the tree...then they picked it, and life got complicated, but why?

Why did it get so complicated?
Because their relationship with God was severed, that's true.
They were no longer in tune with God, with His guidance, with His protection. They were not able to talk with Him like they were before the "incident." The only way of life they knew had been severed. Their relationship with God would never be the same...but now, that relationship has been restored through Jesus Christ. He bridged the gap between God and us. He paid the price that we "owed" for our mistake. He took the punishment and welcomed us back into the fold...but are we back? Or are we still wandering around like lost sheep without a Shepherd?

Maybe the easiest way to answer that question is, how complicated is life for us? How confused are we about which direction we should be headed? How much do we worry about things and get stressed about what will happen next? On a scale of one to ten, most of us would probably be up there towards the "ten" mark. Where were Adam and Eve when they were in the Garden? I'd say they weren't even on the scale. They wouldn't have even known a scale existed. They were what they were, God was who He was, and that was that. No complications there!

Can we possibly get back to that today? Is this what God has offered us through His Son, or is it some fantasy that will never be realized until we are in Heaven? Has Paradise been lost to us for good on this earth? Most of us would probably say, "Yes."

But what if it is still possible? What if we could get back to that state of being that Adam and Eve enjoyed? In 1 Corinthians 7:32a it says:

"In everything you do, I want you to be free from the concerns of this life."

Is that how Adam and Eve were? Free from the concerns of this life? Free to just be and to relax and let God handle all that needed to be taken care of? He provided their food, they didn't need any clothes, the weather was perfect (provided by God) and so they probably didn't need much shelter. If they had fields to tend to, they were perfect fields, not a thorn or thistle in sight and no animals to slay. It was Paradise! The perfect life, given to them by a perfect God. I wonder, as time went on, what their lives would have been like as they had their children and the earth became much more populated? We will never know the rest of that story because they chose to complicate the issue, and bring sin into the picture.

But God is our Father, and He truly wants to help us find Paradise again. He wants what is best for us. He wants to take care of us. We are "sick," and He longs to heal us from our "disease" and let us rest.

When our son, Phil, was very ill, he needed a lot of TLC. (Tender Loving Care) A disease had entered his body and it was causing him a great deal of trouble. It was robbing him of his energy and it made it hard for him to be a normal boy. It caused him to struggle with the simplest things like putting on his socks and shoes or walking up a flight of stairs. He was tired and he needed help, and I wanted to do that for him. Many mornings I would go into his room and give him his morning kiss, ask him what he would like for breakfast and serve him in bed. I wanted to do this for him. I wanted to make things less complicated for him.

Many times as we would be out and about and there was something to carry, I would carry it for him. He was weighted down enough with the illness; he didn't need extra baggage to carry. There were times when he would try to refuse my help, wanting to carry it on his own, and he would, but it was struggle for him. It usually only caused him to be more worn out than was necessary.

One day we were at the mall and he met a friend from school. He was in his wheelchair at the time, but he wanted to get up and walk around with his friend for a while. I was happy he had this opportunity so I told him where I would be if he needed me, and let him go off with his friend. It was no more than 10 minutes, if even that long, before his friend returned to find me. Phil was not doing well. He needed me to bring his wheelchair to him and when I got to him, he was pale and in a bit of distress. He needed my help, and I was happy to come to his rescue, although saddened for what he was enduring.

He was sick, and he needed loving parents to be there for him. He could not carry this load alone; it was too much for him. His life was complicated enough just dealing with his “disease” and all that that entailed for him emotionally and physically. The rest of the world he could not handle alone, so we took care of it for him. When decisions needed to be made, he looked to us, not wanting to think about them--we didn’t mind. It was our pleasure to be all that he needed.

This is a good reminder of how we are in this world, what our relationship with our Father could be like if only we would allow Him to help us. We are sick with the "disease" of sin. It weighs us down, zaps our energy, adds to our distress, and confuses our minds when decisions need to be made. That is why Jesus came. To help us! Our Father knew we were not doing well, and He had the Cure! It came in the form of His one and only Son, sent to earth to heal all who would accept what He was offering.

God purchased you at a high price.
Don't be enslaved by the world.
1 Corinthians 7:23

We no longer have to be weighted down with this "disease" called sin. It no longer has a hold on us when we join with other believers and say, "Yes" to Jesus and all that He died to give us! He rose from the grave three days later to give us hope, to cure our "disease" and to free us from the loads that we cannot carry on our own. He doesn't want us to even try, He wants to help us.

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you
who are weary and carry heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you. Let me teach you, because I am humble
and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I
give you is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

Why do we not get this verse? Why do we refuse the help that is being offered here? We would do no less for our own children, why would our Father God? When Phil's friend came to find me, I brought the wheelchair right over to Phil, helped him into it and attended to his needs--without question. I wanted to give him "rest." There was nothing I would rather have done for him but to help him in any way I could.

Our Father God loves us more than we even love our own children. He understands our needs before we even speak them. Sometimes, God will have a friend offer up prayers to Him and ask for help when we are struggling, but that is not because He doesn't already know what we need, that is because it is good for us to help one another in this way. It does our hearts good to pray for a friend, just as I'm sure it did Phil's friend's heart good to come and get me and find help for Phil.

God is here for us, waiting for us to ask Him for what we need. Our relationship no longer has to be severed, just because of what happened in the Garden. That "incident" has been put behind us now, there is a new way and a new life to be had in Jesus Christ!

And what a difference between our sin and
God's generous gift of forgiveness.
For this one man, Adam, brought death to many
through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ,
brought forgiveness to many through God's
bountiful gift.
Romans 5:15

God has a new plan for all of us to be in a relationship with Him again, and yet we complicate it. We try to carry the load on our own; we try to deal with the "disease" without His help. We forget that His burden is easy and His yoke is light, because it feels so heavy each day. Why is that?

It feels heavy because we are not truly handing it over to Him, we are not really depending on Him fully. What we feel is not His burden, His yoke, it is of our own choosing. We are being like Phil was from time to time, "Let me carry that," he'd say. I handed it over to him occasionally, because it was what he asked of me, just as our Father God will. I saw him struggle under the weight of it because he thought he could manage it himself. I allowed him this choice, but it was not easy to watch. I would much rather have done it for him because I had the strength to handle the burden when he did not.

God has all the strength we will ever need and so much more. He only asks that we hand it over to Him and allow Him to carry it. It is not a cop-out, it is not being less than we can be, it is being all that we can be through Him. Phil's weakness was not a cop-out, he had a disease that robbed him of his strength. We have a "disease" also, it's called sin. God doesn't want us to deal with it on our own, He doesn't want us to complicate our lives with the heavy burden it brings to us each day, He wants us to call on Him. It can be that simple.

We watched a movie the other night that was very ODD! I wouldn't recommend it and I won't be watching it again in the near future, but it did have some interesting things to say through the story about how we can complicate the issues in our lives.

There were two writers in the movie and they were twin brothers. One was weighted down with the burdens in this life, the other was carefree as if cares didn't even exist. Two very similar people--one enjoying life, taking it as it came, not burdened with his lack of good looks, his lack of talent or his lack of acceptance by the world as a whole. The other brother was burdened by it all and it showed in his posture, in his dress and in his total demeanor. His life was a mess, while he had everything and was even acknowledged by the writing world as the talented one.

The "talented" brother had been asked to write a screenplay from a book about orchids. The less-talented brother was writing some screwball story about a murder mystery. The talented brother struggled with each word he had to write. The less-talented brother just let it flow, and was thrilled with each little success he had along the way. Two very similar personalities accepting the burdens of life in two totally different ways. One carrying the full load himself, exhausted, depressed, confused--the other just deriving pure pleasure from the task at hand "knowing" all would be well in the end.

It's not even important how this movie ends, or which brother was a success and which one was not--what I took from this movie was how two very similar people, identical twins, handled life. We see people in this world who seem to carry the whole weight of the world on their shoulders. It seems they have good reason to, they have troubles, life is hard, they got the short-end of the stick so to speak. And yet, did they really, or was it what they chose? If they had gotten the "long end of the stick," what would they have done with it?

God offers us all the "long end of the stick" with Jesus Christ. No matter what has happened in our life, no matter how difficult it is, we have now been offered joy, peace, hope and help through all the hard times.
Is it that simple? Yes, it is.

These two brothers had the same looks and felt the same rejections, yet one was full of joy and the other was completely depressed. Yes, this is just a movie, but movies depict real life lots of the time. I think that is true in this movie, as odd as it might have been. We need to know who we are in Christ, what has been offered to us, how simple life can be if we will only accept His generous gift!!

Everything belongs to you: Paul and Apollos and Peter;
the whole world and life and death; The present and the
future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ,
and Christ belongs to God.
1 Corinthians 3:21-23

Everything belongs to us because we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. What does this mean? It means we don't have to worry. We don't have to be depressed because we have less than the next guy--because we are less popular, less good-looking, less wealthy or have less "talent." We already have everything we need in Christ, what more could we want?

It means we can stop complicating the issue of life and just get on with it!! We can start enjoying all that God has blessed us with even if it doesn't seem like much. It's not so much what we have but what we allow God to do through us with it.

It's all in God's plan, not ours. He is in control, not us! He's not asking us to do more than what He's given us to work with, He's only asking us to leave the outcome up to Him while the work is in progress! That is where true joy is found! That is why one twin brother was happy and one was not! One struggled with the gifts he had been given to work with, thinking they weren't enough and the outcome would be a disaster. The other used what he was given and took pleasure in it, no matter how small it was, no matter the outcome! Although he was working, he rested in his work

What do you have that God hasn't given you?
And if all you have is from God, why boast as
though you have accomplished something on your own?
1 Corinthians 4:7

God gives us everything we will ever need to accomplish everything He is asking us to do! And when we do accomplish something, we should not boast about it, but recognize that whatever it is, it has come from Him alone!

I do not write these messages on my own! These are not my words, and any wisdom that might be gleaned from them does not come from me. It comes from the time I spend alone with God, asking Him to show me the way and to fill me with all of Him. As I write, He is teaching me also. He is opening up my heart and pouring out through my laptop a lesson for today, for my life, and maybe for yours. That is why I share.

Stop fooling yourselves. If you think
you are wise by this world's standards,
you will have to become a fool so you
can become wise by God's standards.
For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness to God.
1 Corinthians 3:18-19

When we struggle and strain to be successful, we are doing so with our own strength. We are not allowing for God's help, believing He is the One in control. When God says His burden is easy and His yoke is light, He is telling us the truth. When He is the One working through us, the burden is lifted, the outcome is His. Then we are simply left with the pleasure of being in His will and watching Him work His miracles. Miracles that can happen every day, from something as simple as finding a lost earring after praying about it, to composing a piece of music or seeing a broken heart healed after a loss.

Oswald Chambers puts it this way:

"We cannot attain to a vision, we must live in the inspiration of it until it accomplishes itself." (March 11th, "My Utmost for His Highest")

In the updated edition in today's language it says:

"We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself."

This is not to say there are not things we need to do, there certainly are. We must get up out of bed, get dressed, go to work, attend to our errands, meet our family's needs etc...but when we do so AFTER putting the day in God's hands, it will "accomplish itself" in an amazingly effortless way. Even with sweat on the brow or tears in the eyes or difficulties at every turn, we will still find God there leading the way through. When we do not, we need to ask ourselves--Have we asked for His help? Have we invited Him into our situation? Are we letting Him carry the load and depending on Him for the outcome, or are we saying, "Let me carry it?" We must learn to abandon ourselves to Him and enjoy the "ride."

There were times when Phil wanted to "carry it," but not many. For the most part he wanted me to help him, and he allowed me to do that for him. His "disease" needed to be dealt with, and the best way for him to do that was to let a loving parent help him with the "burden." It kept it simple for him. He rested, while I attended to his needs. Does God want any less for His children? I don't think so!!

While knowledge may make us feel important,
it is love that really builds up the church. Anyone
who claims to know all the answers doesn't really
know very much. But the person who loves God
is the one God knows and cares for.
1 Corinthians 8:1b-3

We don't have to know the answers; we just have to know the One who does! We can be children, we can rest, and we can let God take good care of us when we love Him and spend time with Him each day, remembering to ask Him to help us each step of the way.
Life can be so much less complicated that way. We can enjoy a little bit of Paradise right here on earth when we understand that the outcome is His, and we trust Him with it, whatever it may be.

Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Romans 11:35 (The Message)

Living expectantly in Him,

Diane