Throwback Episode: Is Your Life Too Complex?

Okay, so I have been thinking about several scriptures this week, and I don't wanna make this too complex, pardon the pun, but I, I really don't.

But I do wanna share with you some scriptures that I've been meditating on this week that really got me thinking about this complexity in our lives.

And by complexity, I mean that we are, we're overbooked, we are overstimulated, we are overspent, and we're overcommitted, and there's so much that's coming in and just not a lot of going out, you know? And our relationship with the Lord suffers as a result of it, and it just gets more and more complex.

Well, there's one Bible verse that Paul wrote, uh, to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11 that has been on my heart for a long, long time.

I'm not talking about weeks or months, but years.

And, uh, and I think about it probably at least a couple times a week.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:3, and he said this, okay? He said, "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Isn't that beautiful? A pure devotion to Christ.

Now, there's another word that is used in translating these verses.

The Douay-Rheims has it in there, and it says this.

For- this is the Douay-Rheims.

"For I fear lest as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted and, and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ." Now, I like that very much.

From the simplicity that is in Christ.

You know, I really do believe that God has called us to a life with Jesus that, that is really described as simple.

It's a simplicity, this simple devotion to the Lord.

And how much in our life crowds that out? How much stuff? How much commitment? How much time, worry, anxiety? And before you know it, we're not living a simple life anymore.

We're not living in, from this perspective of simplicity in Christ.

Another translation puts it, puts it this way.

This is the New American Standard Bible, uh, 1995 translation, I think it is.

Says, "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." Now, let's be honest.

Deep down inside, don't you really desire that simplicity and purity of devotion? Don't you desire a simplicity in your life where first things are first, and everything else is subservient to that which is ultimately, you know, important? Do you feel at times that you are the victim of what would be called the tyranny of the urgent? You know, we, we know what our priorities are as far as our family, our own life, our, our relationship with the Lord, our parish, work.

But what happens is, is that the urgent things in our life crowd out the important things in our life, and that leaves us very disintegrated.

If we were integrated- Then we would give our time and our passion and our heart to those things that are truly important, and those things that are urgent but not so important, we're just gonna have to wait on the side.

And that's one thing that we don't like to do very much, is we don't like to let people down.

Uh, so we let ourselves down, we let our family down, we let our spouse and our friends down because we don't wanna let people out there down, so we say yes to everything instead of the important things that God has called us to, like spend time with your spouse or your children.

Uh, or s- [chuckles] or number one, spend time with the Lord, right? And so these, these urgent things, they crop up in our life, and we put aside our children, and we put aside our devotion to the Lord, this simple devotion to the Lord, and we tend to these other urgent things.