Complicated Simplicity

Our church is offering Adam Hamilton's study Enough at two different times during the week. As I taught the lesson on Wisdom and Finance for the second time it struck how simple life actually is. Hamilton made the connection between being healthy and financially healthy and at the heart of them it is truly simple.

It IS truly simple. To be healthy you need to watch what you eat and exercise. If you need to lose weight it is simple, don't eat more calories than you burn in day. If you do you will lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight. Simple.

When it comes to our finances we need to only spend what we have not more. Americans now tend to spent 101% of their income. We actually need to spend less in order to have more. A budget is easy, you know how much you make in a month and then you decide how to spend only that, while saving some and giving some away. Simple.

It is even simple down to having a clean house. Many people hate that there house is not clean but do nothing to make it that way. To have a clean house means you have to clean it. You have to find time, make time, and plan time to clean it up. And then have the patience and desire to keep it that way. Simple.

Life is not that hard, it is simple but we like to complicate it up. The only way we complicate it up is with excuses. I know I cannot afford it but my high def TV needs digital cable. I know I cannot afford this new purse but look it is on sale. I know I can't afford it but I really just want to get out and eat some food someone else cooked. I am really craving that milk shake, that order of onion rings, or that eleventh pancake. I cannot give up my Mountain Dew addiction.

At the heart of every excuses is a selfish motive. It is making our wants and our desires fulfilled instantly and selfishly. Look at your last excuse to do something that you really shouldn't, I bet there is a selfish motive. Even if your excuse was, "My daughter needed that new dress for school because everyone else had a new dress," at the heart of this excuse is the desire to please your daughter and the inability to say no.

It is just like our walk with Christ. It is really easy, simply follow Jesus, but our selfish desires, our egos, our need to but "ME" first makes it all complicated. Life is not supposed to be hard, it can throw us a loop every so often, but it is really simple when you think about it.