Scott's N-Cites

Simplicity

It’s been a pretty cool day. As I showered this morning, I offered a prayer that has become pretty routine: Lord, I don’t have any idea what You have in store for me today, but I’m ready to learn, to grow, and to advance Your Kingdom.” What an adventure! And, honestly, what a burden - sometimes.

After taking Zakiya to BGSU, I got a call from a friend who had some work for me to do. God knew I needed that time to hang out with a friend who has been through a lot of stuff with me. I helped Dave & Kevin replace five sliding glass doors at an apartment complex in BG and it felt good to do something visibly productive. Most importantly, the conversation throughout the day was rich and focused on what God is doing these days in our lives and in the Church (not any specific church, but the universal Church).

When I got to the work site this morning, I was in foul mood, which is fortunately not a common thing. I didn’t sleep well last night, and the weight of living with such a high level of daily uncertainty was pressing in. By noon, I had some fresh perspective and chose to enjoy the rest of the day. I’m glad that I’ll be working with them again tomorrow.

One of the Scriptures that grabbed me today was in Acts 15. There was a dispute about the requirements for the new Gentile believers and after getting their heads together, the leaders of the early church decided to keep things as simple as possible. Acts 15:28 says, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements.” Then they gave some guidance about eating food that had been sacrificed to idols and avoiding sexual immorality. I like their idea of keeping it simple. Most of my life has been built around finding out what the rules were and then keeping them (define success for me and then I’ll deliver), and I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he talked about an abundant life. I’m glad to be learning the beauty of simplicity.

Late this afternoon I got a few minutes to read a few pages in a great book called Houses That Change The World. Here's some food for thought from Wolfgang Simson: "As Agentinian evangelist Juan Carlos Ortiz once remarked,: “There are more than 22,000 denominations in the world. How lucky you are that you happen to be in the one that is right!” [Don’t you love the sarcasm?!] Since then, not only has the number of denominations risen to between 24,000 and 30,000, but many Christians have begun to understand that most problems of today’s churches do not lie outside the system, but inside – inside our inherited, learned, and dear patterns of belief and practice, the way we ‘do church.’

Maybe we all need to learn something from the early leaders who wanted to keep things simple.

posted by Scott @ 9:00 PM