Simplify - to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier.
I have determined to not get reflective during this holiday season as I usually do. I have instead decided to focus on simplifying. I want to make my life less complex, less complicated, plainer and easier.
Jesus said in Mark 12:29-31 29 The first and principal one of all commands is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. 31The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
If there are no greater commandments than these then I can simplify by focusing on these two things. To help me with this I can take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side I write Love the Lord and on the other side I write Love others. This becomes a measuring stick as to where my thoughts and actions are focused.
My first official action of focus on this was to send a letter to someone we have known for 27 or so years. We were very close and recently his actions ended him up in prison for 30 some years. I will not go into detail as love records no record of a wrong done. Lesson number 1. Last week I was led to look him up in the federal prison system and was surprised how easy it was. I sent him a letter which was personal. I received his response today. He shared that nobody has written him in the 4 years he has been in there other than his mother a couple of times. Nobody has visited him in that same time period other than his mother a couple of times. How sad. This is a man who is paying for his sin but are we to forget him like he never existed? Why have I not written sooner? Especially when I have forgiven him years ago. Why can we as people and more so as Christians find it so easy to disregard a person?
There is no greater commandment than these!
No comments:
Post a Comment