Simple Isn't Easy

Some folks have the misguided notion that simple = easy. I can see how one might become confused because of the semantic range of these words in the English language, but in reality nothing could be further from the case...simple is anything but easy, especially when we're talking about the simple life or the simple church.

Simplicity is closely connected to beauty, purity, and truth - these concepts do not necessarily relate closely with "ease". The centrality of simplicity is recognized in both science and theology - which is essentially our knowledge and articulation about the empirical world and our knowledge and articulation of the Lord God as He has revealed Himself to us, respectively.

A Wikipedia article on simplicity talks about its importance for science, epistemology, and theology:

"According to Occam's razor, all other things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely to be true — hence the importance of the concept of simplicity in epistemology. According to Thomas Aquinas, God is infinitely simple.

Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) practice the Testimony of Simplicity, which is the simplifying of one's life in order to focus on things that are most important and disregard or avoid things that are least important."

The reality is that simplicity requires acute attention, meditation, and focus. These qualities are becoming increasingly difficult in our ADHD world. Our thought and attention is torn in various directions and we're left with complex fragmentation. The same phenomenon has taken place in many modern congregations. We've allowed so many things to divert our attention that we begin to forget who we are and why we exist as a body - we are, then, easily broken apart, which only reflects the brokenness of sin and death.

We must return to the simplicity of our being and activity that we might become authentic expressions of beauty and truth - living icons of the Kingdom. As the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, once said, "You can always recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity." I wonder how many see the truth in our various Christian communities today?

The difficulty comes in maintaining an appropriate vision and focus...not only for oneself, but with the entire community. In leadership, another difficulty is disappointing people by having to say "No" quite a lot because their great idea or program would simply distract us from our real reason for existence. Ultimately, we are trying to help people understand that we're shaped by an eschatological vision embodied in the Living Christ...that is, we are constantly pointing away from ourselves toward Him. Focusing on Christ may be simple, but it's certainly not easy.

How then do we keep this simple focus? What are other ways that we might become simple or maintain simplicity within the Christian community today? Those aren't rhetorical questions, I'd really like to hear your thoughts. Until next time - Blessings in Christ ~ RLS