Intricate Simplicity

Proverbs 9:6
Leave your simple ways and you will live, walk in the way of understanding.

Ok, This is my starting point. This blog entry will be about whether the bible wants you to live a completely simple lifestyle or a complex lifestyle questioning everything.

One very important thing to remember is that I want you to wrestle with what I am writing, find out in your own walk, talk with God and your family about this. I think its an interesting topic. Ready?
(God's Words are in BLUE, defenitions are in RED and my commentary are in BLACK)


In the words of DJ Lance-Rock (Yo Gabba Gabba; Nick Jr. show) "Lets do it, a-break it down"

In the proverb above it describes leaving simple ways behind and begin to live. Basically saying that living in our simple ways is not only the opposite of walking in the way of understaning but the opposite of truly living.


But does that mean that God has called us to live ultra-intricately or over-elaborately? One antonym to "simple" is "intricate" , and intricate is

In·tri·cate:
1. Having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate.
2. Solvable or comprehensible only with painstaking effort.

In my opinion, living life with everything complexly arranged, too elaborately and almost making simple issues only solveable by painstaking effort is well, wrong. It takes away from that peace that God has put in our lives.

2nd Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.


See that? A sound mind. Peace. But where is the middle ground between having a simple lifestyle without being a simpleton? The middle ground between being lazy and over-ambitious in our own ways and taking on all of the problems of the world for ourselves.

Well, let me just give some examples when simplicity is used in God's word.

1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

Did you catch that? It was awesome. Ok, I'll tell you what the moral of the story here is. In the first verse it says leave OUR simple ways behind. The fact of the matter is,

If you live exaggeratedly intricate you are wrong
If you live exaggeratedly simple...still wrong.
If you live in the middle ground...still wrong.

Confusing? Not really, the similarity between those lifestyles is that no matter how we live, if we live in our ways it is simple to God's way for us. Proverbs 9:6 isn't saying that just the lazy are displeasing God,


But in everything we do without God, that we ultimately do for ourselves is living like a simpleton. Living only seeing our life is simple because our lives are like vapors in the wind. All the riches of kings end up in wills. Nothing that we do without God is going to matter, it will be forgotten.

With God, we will reach our full potential because we may not see everyone's life that we impact with every, single action but HE DOES.

And we just have to have faith in him, that he is doing what is best, what is truly good.

So, living for ourselves, (whether plain or stressed) is wrong.

Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Ok, so this verse describes how we are simple. How we need to be.

See, God will reveal himself to those who are babes. Not literally Micah aged babies and that is it. but rather those who accept that in comparison to God they know nothing.



Get it?


When this verse talks about the wise and prudent it means those who are wise in their own eyes.

Ok. I would love to delve deeper into this, but I want you to do this. For you. Yes, you, sitting in front of the computer screen because you heard about this blog from someone's facebook or something.

I want you to wrestle with this and read on your own.

ok?


So, Read the following verses on...

How our ways are simple in comparison to God's:

• Isaiah 55: 6-11
• Matthew 11: 25-30
• Proverbs 16:9
• Proverbs 3:5
• Psalm 48:14
• Jerimiah 10:23

So, the moral of the story is

We = wrong, both living stressed and simple

God = ALWAYS RIGHT

Ok, I could have just said that from the beginning. Oh, well.