Last week our nineteen years old waitress told me she couldn’t believe how fast her life was passing by. I chuckled inside and responded, “Wait until you’re my age. When we were kids it seemed Christmas would never come, but now it feels that as soon as we take down the decorations, it’s time to unpack and put them back up.” I encouraged her to take hold of every moment of life and enjoy it. Probably, every reader can identify with her response. She shared her life was so complicated that was hard to do. But how do our lives get so complex?
In the beginning, God made life simple. The Lord God planted a garden . . . took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it (Gen 2:8; 3:15). He instructed the first couple, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it (1:28). God provided Adam and Eve with everything they needed for life—food, water, companionship, and His fellowship. The first departure from this simple life came with their act of sin. After their disobedience, the Lord condemned Eve to endure pain in childbirth and to be under the rule of Adam. God cursed the ground. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground (3:16-19). Then God drove them from the garden. Since then, human effort to create its own garden has increasingly complicated life.
Four hundred years before Christ the philosopher Confucius said, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Despite the fact, later generations developed his teachings into a form of religion; this statement shows that even then people struggled with keeping life simple. At the root of most complications in life is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These three categories of temptation encompass more than just desires to commit immoral acts. It includes any desire generated by the sinful world outside the will of God. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does— comes not from the Father but from the world (1Jn 2:16 NIV). The Message Bible translates this clear and simple. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.
Our son bought his first house a few years ago. Nothing wrong with that but he soon discovered that even this normal act added obstacles to a simple life: frozen pipes; ruined ceilings; problems with AC unit; rotted boards on his deck; etc. You get the idea. Another thief of a simple life can be ambition. In the NT, two words are translated ambition; one is for positive ambitions and means to labor, strive, study. Therefore we also have as our ambition . . . to be pleasing to Him (2 Co 5:9). However, the more common word translated ‘selfish ambition’ means contentious disposition, feud, or strife. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing (Jas 3:16). Selfish ambitions rob us of simplicity.
The foundation to a simple life is contentment. Paul said, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances (Phil 4:11). Of course, the world bombards us with persistent attempts at making us discontent. The marketing world aims at creating discontent but offers contentment through their particular merchandise. Social norms drive us to ‘keep up with the Jones’—bigger houses, expensive cars, clothes, appearance, careers, prestige . . . ad infinitum. Contentment through the world, i.e. lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, always falls one arm’s length out of reach. It requires one more step. Like giving a thirsty person salt water, it only makes them want more. If you catch up with the Jones their richer relative moves to the neighborhood. Get the biggest house in town and someone builds a mansion next door. Become CEO and buy the company and you’ll meet someone who owns two companies. Contentment means an inward self-sufficiency through Christ and denotes a mind satisfied with its lot. It is a learned skill; I have learned to be content.
The cost of worldly efforts is enormous in light of eternity. Jesus warned, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul (Mar 8:36)? Paul said discontentment plunges men into ruin and destruction. Remember, in the beginning God made life simple. Jesus offers simplicity through the Gospel. Paul feared the Corinthians were being led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3). The complications we created through our lust and pride causes life to rush by and we can walk pass the most important flowers God has given us such as our spouse, children, grandchildren, and the simple things of life—the things He richly supplied for us to enjoy (1Ti 6:17). Like in the Garden of Eden, God will supply all your needs (Php 4:19). Stop and look at the roses and all the flowers He has planted around you. Stop and enjoy the simple.
Sustaining Word for the Week: “Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. You’re only here for a short visit. So don’t forget to stop and smell the roses” (Walter Hagen).