There are moments in life that snap you from your drowsy sleep and suddenly wake you up. It might be the unexpected loss of a job, being presented with divorce papers, a life-threatening diagnosis, or the loss of loved one. It could be a news story covering some tragic life situation that speaks to your heart or the gentle experience of restored hope. When we free ourselves from the pressures of a constantly busy life that is wrapped up in our self-pursuits, our hearts are touched both by the experience of despair and those of hope and courage. They remind us to turn our focus from the complexities of life to the “simple” lessons life teaches us.
It seems we are always seeking to discover these lessons, even when we don’t consciously pursue them. We ask such important questions at both ends of our life:
Who am I?
How did I get here?
Where am I going?
What is my purpose in life?
We busy ourselves with studies and jobs and the pursuit of so many ambitions. We think they’ll offer the fulfillment we desire. But sometimes in the end we find they were meaningless and empty. In the grand pursuit of happiness we try to learn how to deal with our fears and insecurities, our sense of loss over people, things, and missed opportunities, and our guilt and regret over mistakes we make. We turn to accomplishments, money, education, status, service, relationships, and faith in our quest of finding what makes us happy. Our pursuit of happiness puzzles and confounds us. But as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross points out:
“We are not unhappy because of the complexities of life. We are unhappy because we miss its underlying simplicities.”
“Simple” lessons are not always easily attained but they are presented to us in the daily course of our lives however complex we make them. They are revealed joys even in the midst of great suffering and pain. These are the lessons of learning to love when we feel unloving, to be strong when we are weak, trust when we feel betrayed, hope in the face of despair, forgive when we have been so hurt. They are the lessons of discovering who we are, not only in success but in failure, not only in health but in disease, not only in riches but in poverty.
“Simple” lessons teach us our lives are intricately and purposefully intertwined with one anther. We are connected in ways that both frustrate and bless us. They remind us that great complexities of life and theology can be summarized in living simply just as Jesus taught us:
Love God and love others as he loved us.
Focusing on the “simple” things of life frees us to be who we were meant to be. We don’t learn these lessons automatically, but we might learn them when we turn our attention away from our busy day and invite God to rewrite our daily to-do list and to reveal miracles in the simple opportunities he gives us.
Living simply means involves resisting the temptation to fill our lives with more of everything to more of the ONE thing that really fills our life abundantly to the full and overflowing with happiness and peace. Don’t live simply for the sake of simplicity. Live simply to find the freedom and delight that God offers us every day. As the old Shaker hymn reminds us:
“‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.”