Simplistic Complexity or Complex Simplicity?

Why is it a tendency of human nature to make simple things difficult? Our lives mirror the complex machines in the Rube Goldberg contests. For example, I have a tendency to spend hours wandering the isles of Menard’s looking for a specific tool, when all I needed to do was ask a store attendant and within 5 minutes I’d be heading home. Or why do women have a tendency to make things more complex by saying everything but what they really mean in the hopes of coercing some sort of indirect communication out of men? Humans love to confound the simple with the complex.

Our faith is no less at risk to this phenomenon. Human tendency is to take the beautifully simplistic message of Jesus Christ and tack on doctrines, rules, implied behaviors, dress codes, etc to create a confusing complexity of Christianity.

(Two things: 1. I hope the preceding alliteration impressed you. 2. I do think doctrines, rules, etc have an important place in the church and are needed. They can however, distract us from Christ instead of pointing us to him.)

In the gospel of John, after Jesus fed the 5,000 and walked to the other side of the lake, crowds continued to follow him. Someone asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus replies with this simple yet profound instruction. “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Ah, this is where the complex simplicity (or is it simplistic complexity) of faith begins. What does it really mean to believe in Jesus?

Do you have to read you Bible? Do you have to pray everyday? Do you have to understand what atonement, propitiation, justification, and sanctification all mean? Do you have to be baptized to believe in Jesus? Do you have to say a special prayer? Do you have to understand the Four Spiritual Laws and walk down the Roman’s Road? Do you have to dress modestly to believe in Jesus? Do you have to quit cussing, drinking, and smoking? Do you have to break up with your same-sex partner to believe in Jesus? Do you have to go to Church? Do you have to think abortion is wrong? Do you have to…?

What must we do to do the works God requires?

Personally, I have a tendency to have a Rube Goldberg kind of faith. When I get caught up in the complexities of doing things, not out of belief in Jesus Christ, but trying to earn his approval, I spin my wheels in futility.

What must we do to do the works God requires?

Can it be that simple?

Confessions...

As I sit here at a desk piled high with papers, a calendar filled with to do lists, and a watch ticking away…I have to confess something.

I get an “F” in time management. No…wait…I think time management is baloney. It is a leadership principle the Devil made up to make us feel guilty about ourselves. Ok…perhaps I’m a little harsh, but track with me here. There always seems like there are too many things to do and too little time to do them. And just when I think I have a grasp on my schedule, something comes up and throws it all out of whack. I hate it that I have to choose one thing over another. Spending my time on this means not spending it on that. It’s a never ending process!

Its times like this that I’m reminded I’m created for eternity. I truly am an alien to this world (1Pt 2:11). This temporal world was not meant for me. Everyday we say things like, “time sure flew by” or “I need more time” or “there’s not enough hours in the day.” Time is a constraint to us because we were created for eternity – for all time. Breaking time into 24 hour increments is foreign to who and what we were created to be.

So next time you miss a deadline tell your boss, “It’s not my fault, I was created for eternity!”