What is it that fuels the complicated in life? Those who live complicated lives often talk of having no alternatives to the complication, and often endure, rather than live life. Those who live in a world that is too complicated eventually need to find help to ease their troubled minds, and entire ministries and industries have arisen to help make sense of these complicated lives.
Perhaps those who have developed a knack for raising funds and validating themselves and their ministries have caused this epidemic of complication. There are marriage and family ministries because marriages are so complicated. There are counseling centers, rehab centers, and crisis hotlines in abundance. Stress is a favorite target of mental and physical caregivers, and medications and alcohol have become norm in an overly-complicated culture.
Listen to those who run ministries talk sometime about all the complicated and trouble family, marriages, friendships, and relationships they deal with, and how vital they are in the process of helping people sort out these complications.
Personally, I like my marriage, and I think marriage is natural and simple. In fact, all relationships are simple, yet I tend to want to make them complicated to give me an excuse as to why there is a struggle at times. I know why there is a struggle at times. I am sinful and self- centered, and that causes troubles. (It is much easier to deal with the complications in life than my sin.)
We do not need a long seminar to point out the fact that my sin causes separation from all good in relationships, so if I deal with my sin, the relationships take care of themselves.
I have minimized going to any of the major marriage seminars or get-aways because it seems that they major on the complicated, and they make things more complicated than when we started.
I think the complications in life come to the Godless and just carry over into our Christian lives. Trying to make sense of life without God means you’re writing your own owner’s manual, and when you do that, you will continually be adjusting it to new circumstances, making it more complicated, and thereby, stressful.
God makes it simple. I am a sinner and my sin has separated me from Him and others. When I admit that, and start to enjoy God and His Word, I can begin to sort through the complicated, and understand and apply the simple. As I spend time with Him, His Spirit teaches, convicts, and encourages me. The many things that once were extremely complicated are now simple in that God, my Father, knows about them, and has them under control. I can trust Him.
The Holy Spirit guides me day by day, and allows me to enjoy the maze of life, rather than be overwhelmed by it.
When I was a kid, life was simple because my Mom and Dad needed to deal with all the details of life, and my responsibility was to obey their directives. Today is no different in that the details of life are in God’s hands, and my responsibility is to obey His directives.
When I enjoy God, I enjoy others, and life is sensible and simple. It does not get much more profound than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment