A few months ago, Joshua Maisner
(fellow squad leader) told me about a dream over a nice, African breakfast. In
the dream, we were listening to a team talk about their issues during a debrief
meeting. Each time someone spoke, all he kept saying was “keep it simple,
stupid�. Eventually, the team had enough. One of them quickly stepped away,
called our AIM staff back in the states, and eventually Joshua was sent home
for using that phrase. (I think he even used it when asked what’s for supper?
Not appropriate. He knows this.)
Welp. If we were still in the
dream, I would need to go pack my bags because every time I try to write a
blog, I get a whole page written, then God says to me KEEP IT SIMPLE. He
doesn’t call me stupid, though. Thanks for being polite, Jesus! So, in the
spirit of the night… I started asking myself a few questions…
How often do we complicate God?
How frequently do we talk about Him as if He’s untouchable and hardly tangible?
How many times a day do we make His ultimate will and desire a mystery?
WHY DO WE DO THIS?
I can’t tell you why you do this, but I know a few reasons
why I do…
1)
Sometimes, I really don’t think love is enough.
If life was as simple as “loving your neighbor�, there would be no room for me
to make it complicated. It would
mean that grace is real and I would have to give it out as well as accept it.
It would zap all my justifications that I’ve built brick by brick. If
justification builds walls, the walls keep my arguments guarded because Love must be complicated so I can be
justified. Love conquers all and leaves us naked of our defenses.
2)
At times, I think my knowledge is more realistic
than God’s truth. If I can’t understand how God can absorb all my failures and
still love me, then it can’t possibly be realistic for me to do that for
someone else! Grace is unrealistic when weighed by our logic. I must have my own understanding of how something
works so that I can manufacture it within myself. When I can’t understand, my
doubt assassinates my faith. God
doesn’t need our knowledge. It is not required, nor is it desired. Knowledge
and logic are man-made but Truth derives from Christ’s character.
3)
Most of the time, I just want to know His will
for MY life. What is MY place in His
Kingdom? How can I serve? What can I DO? Each question I ask that sounds as if
it’s about God is really about ME. I want to know MY gifts, MY talents, MY
desires to be effective for Him. Maybe
it’s not about me. Maybe God uses these things for those that are for HIS
purpose, but how can He when I’m so cross-eyed from looking at myself! God is a
lot less of a mystery when I stop talking about myself and listen to Him for a while.
I don’t think any of us would want to come out and say:
Love really isn’t enough to cure cancer, poverty, or my
cousin’s shame from having an affair on his wife…
OR
I think my logic makes much more sense in this situation
than having faith…
OR
I made MY career being a Christian, working 9 to 5 loving
and serving people, given that it pays really well and I get over-time for all
my extra hours.
We wouldn’t come out and say these things, but is our life
saying it without our mouths having to form the words?
That’s my question to myself.
When I am justified in being super angry at another Racer,
do I believe that God’s love for His son/daughter will correct them and that
they don’t need my judgment to swoop in and save the day? Yes! Love is enough.
I am in need of grace just as much as I am in need of giving it.
When my knowledge is not sufficient and I DON’T know what to
think when someone asks me about Revelation and the “End Times� and how / when
/ what it will be like when Jesus comes back… will I choose to have faith
anyway? Yes! Knowledge, theology, and logic do not hold a candle’s light to
truth, faith, and love.
When I am searching for my own identity, will I desire to seek
God more than I do myself? YES!
The more I learn God’s character, the more I see my true design.
Simple answers such as LOVE, FAITH, and TRUTH refute the
junk of our lives. They throw the center stage light off of us and on to God.
It is totally the OPPOSITE of the culture we live in. I think its Roosevelt
that told us “pick our self up by our boot straps“ during the end of our
depression. John Mayer sings that my generation is “waiting on the world to
change�. Even our law has the
“bill of rights� that says we are ENTITLED to certain things. All of this… it all reeks of
self-service. It robs us of our God-sight.
All I’m trying to say is…
I have made God complicated, but His love is big enough
to bring my chaos into order. I am no longer in the business of projecting the
tangled depths of my issues as the intricacy of God’s love. If this were Joshua’s dream, and he
just read this blog… He would give me the best advice that I could ask for…
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
(Joshua, don’t you dare think that you can call me stupid and get away with it.)
Love
God.
Love
people.
