October, 2005 

Unnecessary Complications.

[Jesus said] “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Luke 10:27)

I’m the master at it… taking something that should be a 5 minute job and stretching it out to 5 hours or 5 days! If you’ve worked with me you know that I am unusually gifted at making something complicated out of even the most mundane chore. Now this can come in handy, perhaps, when writing a computer program. We may just want to hit the “OK” button and have the information on our computer screen processed, but before that can happen, the software engineer (my former profession) has had to account for virtually every possible outcome – both positive and negative. Similarly, it is a good thing that our surgeons do not take the simplistic attitude that “parts is parts!” So there seems to be a time and a place for dwelling in the details and making things complicated. However Church is not the place, and certainly the Christmas is not the time for added complications!

What is complicated about the Church? Nothing really. The message is very simple: the salvation of souls through Jesus Christ. The method is simple: sharing the message with others. The actions are straightforward: loving our neighbors as ourselves and worshipping the Lord with our all our heart, soul, strength and mind. The life of the Church may be complex, but it’s not complicated. Adding 100 3-digit numbers, for instance, is a complex problem which may use several sheets of scratch paper, but it is not a complicated problem. It may be hard to do, but it is easy to understand. Similarly, the Church is complex because it involves many people and all of their various life circumstances. But it is no more complicated than we make it.

We tend to make church complicated by our programs and activities, our databases and calendars, and our meetings and correspondence. However, that is our own doing. What God charges us to be and do is really far simpler. Each of us is simply to walk with God personally, through regular, intimate communication with Him. We are to speak to God in prayer and hear from Him thorough His Word. And then out of our faith walk and the relationships in which God has placed us, we help make new disciples and strengthen and encourage existing ones. It’s really that simple! So, as we at Saving Grace seek to carry on God’s mission work and spread the simple joy of Christmas, may we avoid any unnecessary complications and in so doing bear much fruit.