The Simplicity of the Life of a Disciple of Jesus

The simplest life is the very best life.

To embrace simplicity in the temptation to complexity is to choose the blessing of God.

A good decision is a wise choice.

God has made life simple in many ways (though not all lives are simple; some are incredibly complex) and it is our humanity that strives greedily for more.

If we will seek after the simple life we will discover the elegant simplicity in all the confounding complexity.

Then we have serene hope, much inner peace, and an inherent and magnificent purpose.

Nothing will hold us back.

We must give something to God that seems to cut us to the heart: our very life.

But God seeks only what entirely prevents our happiness, which is His joy.

If we give to God what we cannot keep (everything in our human grasp) He will give us His very Kingdom (a possession of the heart) and we will never look back.

Because we have every good thing of eternal worth, we have no thought for which can only lead us into death.

And even in mortal death we will have life of no comparison; to meet God and His heavenly host.

So, give to God so He may give you your personal key to His Kingdom.

When God has your very life, life is simpler. When things are simple, pain is borne with less resistance, and there is less emotional drain encountered.

As we live a life that is no longer especially ours, but God’s, we are commended to personal indifference whilst we are also commended to compassion for many things in the world. We are less intrinsically important and others are more so. And this is a blessing, for we cannot be ‘got’ at.

We are less vulnerable to the storms and floods and droughts of life.

When we embrace the simplicity of the life of a disciple of Jesus, we think much less of what we are missing out on.

The life of simplicity includes the gathering of much complexity, but in a don’t-sweat-the-small-stuff sort of way.

The greatest contribution to make to life is to make a contribution to another’s life.

This is able to be done when we no longer hold to the many complexities of a life run under our own steam.

To miss life is easy – seek after our own gain. To gain life is also easy – live for others. The former is the complex and frustrating life. The latter is much simpler.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.