[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/February/2022]
Being ill at the start of this year put me ‘out of action’ for a few weeks. I encountered a complete change of pace to my usual busy life, as limited energy meant I could only focus on getting through the essentials of each day.
This recent ‘hiatus’ got me considering how my usual busy-ness impacts my walk of faith, and whether the Lord is encouraging me to get back to the ‘essentials’ of what He asks of me, and think again about how I can best do that. I also wonder if as a fellowship we need to take time to re-examine ourselves and to take stock at the beginning of this New Year.
I’ve been asking myself whether there are times I’ve made being a Christian more complicated than it needs to be. Perhaps it’s just me, but maybe we can all lose sight of the core message of the gospel due to so much activity. Have I been focusing too much on what I’m ‘doing’ rather than finding more time to just ‘being’? We can all get overly busy, not just through our commitments but also from mental and perhaps even ‘spiritual’ overactivity. Some of us don’t have the strength or health to be physically active, but we can all ‘crowd out’ Jesus in our minds and hearts with numerous distractions or spiritual strongholds such as jealousy, pride or bitterness.
Is busy-ness my way or your way, of avoiding other things that we don’t want to face or deal with? Are we striving too much? What is it that we really need to focus on, amongst the demands and responsibilities in life and our Christian service? Are we getting tied up with some things that might well matter, but perhaps should not always be the main priority?
My friend Frank regularly visits primary schools to talk to the children about Jesus & to share the gospel with them. He’s done so on a voluntary basis for many decades. It was from Frank that I first heard the acronym KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid – a principle originally from the world of design which states that ‘designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible. Complexity should be avoided … as simplicity guarantees the greatest levels of user acceptance and interaction’. Frank has taken on ‘KISS” as his approach to sharing his faith with the children. But not because he is stupid, or because he is teaching children, but because he realises that Jesus’ message is simple and can be shared with and understood by everyone. You see it in how he lives his life too. Maybe we need to remember to KISS too (but no-one is stupid!).
The American pastor John Ortberg reminds us of our life’s purpose in his book ‘Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them’. In the chapter on gratitude entitled The Secret of a Loving Heart he states that “we complicate our faith and lives in many ways, but at the core, our purpose is simple: we are called to love”. Ortberg is actually reminding us of the love that God has shown us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God wants us to love Him and each other.
People need to hear about Jesus and we need to tell them. We need to keep our faith simple and our message clear. And maybe you’re reading this and wondering what the gospel message is. The Bible is full of passages proclaiming the good news. 1 John 4: 7-10 is one that came to mind:
‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins‘.
I pray that you’ve been encouraged to think again about what God most desires for you. Just in case it’s never really sunk in, or the demands of life have been drowning out His voice. I don’t think we can hear often enough how much God loves and values us, whether life feels busy or steady. We can always trust in Him.
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Contributed by Sarah Bell; © the Author
