(This Sunday morning meditation is an excerpt from, Specific Messages for Specific Times, by yours truly, copyrighted in 2006. It is still relevant today.)
Life seems complicated, confusing, and complex, and full of treacherous twist, trying times, and testing turns. What happened to the simple life? There is not enough time, too much to do, too much to deal with, and too many decisions to make. What happened to the simple life? Trying to make progress, but we are pulled and sometimes pushed; often tossed and driven on this restless sea of life; forgetting to hold to God’s unchanging hand. What happened to the simple life?
We get in places where we cannot see our way through, can’t figure our way out, and we want to get somewhere, amazingly, we wander in mazes not knowing how to get to where we want to get to quickly, and we cry out, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” What happened to the simple life? Money won’t go far enough. Food has to be stretched. Energy has to be consumed. Just clocked out on Friday, the weekend is too busy, and the workweek is resumed. What happened to the simple life? A house used to be a home and not a hangout or a place to hang my coat until a new day beckons to run the street again. What happened to the simple life? Where are the times when children respected parents, children respected adults, and adults were adults and not children themselves? “When I became a man, I put away childish things”. What happened to the simple life? Used to listen to Mom and Dad, but their voices cannot compete with the volume on modern-day electronic devices and the unconscious message on radio and TV. What happened to the simple life? We conform to a sick society, not realizing that makes us sick as well. We lust for affluence and positions of influence. Influence? Aren’t you the “salt of the earth and the light of the world?” What happened to the simple life?
We buy things we don’t want and don’t even need just to impress people. What happened to, “Be ye not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind?” What happened to the simple life? We get into role-playing instead of plainly being who we really are. We have a collection of masks that disguise on the outside what is really deep in the inside. What happened to the simple life? The simplicity of life is found in Jesus’ words, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first.” Yet we seek everything else first like we did not hear God’s word, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me?” Working to make an honest living, but gas prices are high, and taxes are higher. The homeless saying, “Brother can you spare a dime,” and we think, “What’s mine is mine.” What happened to the simple life? Choices, choices, choice, and there are consequences for good choices and bad choices. Oh, how much more simple life would be if the good outweighed the bad. What happened to the simple life?”
(Tomorrow the answer to the question, posed repetitively in today’s publication will be answered from a Biblical perspective in the “Monday Short” meditation. Check it out! Okay? Be blessed!