Simple Yet Complex

This week’s mindset has been a tough one.  It is on my heart to write about obedience.  However, I am not very familiar with this subject.  I think both my husband and family would agree in saying, I do not listen worth a darn!  

In Sunday school, we have been in the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is a prophet, and he is tasked with telling the people that God is angry with them for their disobedience.  It occurred to me that in reality, what God was asking was simple to an obedient heart, yet complex to the disobedient.  There is always a catch, right?

Here are a couple of examples of the simple yet complex:

Example 1:  I ask my husband does this make me look fat.  

The correct answer is always the truth; however, the truth is relevant to the day.  I do not want to look like a cow when I exit the house, but I also want a halfway sensitive answer if in fact I need to change.  The blanket you look beautiful darling only makes me angrier!  This is a simple question, but the answer can be very complex!

Example 2:  What do you want for dinner?

I hate this question!  It seems like a simple question, but it is always greeted with,”Uh, I dunno, what do you want?”   My point is that if I knew what I wanted I wouldn’t be asking you.  UGH!  This is a huge thing in my household.  The funny thing is we both want the same thing, a decision.  Then inevitably the first suggestion is greeted with a no, I don’t want that.  This leads back to the original question, a few minutes of the silent treatment followed by dirty looks.  Simple yet complex!

There are many examples in the Bible when God does or asks something simple, and we as people are left questioning, over analyzing it, and making it complex.  Jesus says,” I am the way the truth and the life, no one gets to the father but by me.” John 14:6.  Yet, people believe that if they are a good person that is enough.  It simply is not.  The faulty logic here falls in the relying on self.  I think that is what makes Jesus’ simple promise so complex.  It is hard for us to rely solely on someone else's goodness and sacrifice.  It is our nature to say I have to do something, or I have to be good enough to earn it.  God asks us to accept His son and His love, and all we have to do is simply accept it.  We don't earn it, it is a gift.

 

Now what in the heck does all this have to do with obedience?  My guess is that obedience is simple.  If you have a rule designed to protect you, then you should just follow it.  I think sometimes in life you just have to accept the answer to the question even if you don’t like it.  It is simple, until you have to live it!  After all, how do you loose weight?  Simple, diet and exercise…. well maybe not so simple!