It’s Complicated… Or Is It?

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday.  Write for five minutes on a one-word prompt.  The prompt today is “simplify.”

Sometimes life just seems so complicated.

Relationships are difficult, questions remain unanswered, unforeseen circumstances disrupt your carefully-laid plans.  It seems like no matter what you do to bring some order to the chaos, it just spirals further out of control, and none of it seems to make any sense.

I remember a day like that.  I was driving to visit my friend who had recently been diagnosed with anorexia.  Although I had suspected it for some time and the news came as no surprise, it felt complicated.  Until then she had been unwilling to talk about it.  Now she was open to it, I didn’t know what to say.

There were deeper questions: Where was God in all this?  Why was it happening?  Why had all my prayers for her seemed to go unanswered?

That week I was going to be leading at a children’s holiday club and I needed to get familiar with some of the songs, so as I drove, I started the playlist.  A song began: Fully Rely On God.

“Our God is so powerful- nothing’s too hard for him,
And our God is reliable- so good he never changes.
God, he made me- he knows what I need better than anyone.
God, he loves me- he only wants good things for me.

So I’m gonna fully rely on God, I’m going to trust him with all I’ve got.
I know he will never let me down.
Fully rely on God, I’m going to trust him with all I’ve got.
Fully rely on God, cos he can do anything!” 

It was exactly what I needed to remind me of the simple truth:

• God is powerful- he can do anything.
• God is reliable and we can trust him.
• God made me and he made my friend- he sees and he knows and he loves.
• God has a good plan for us.

Instead of trying to understand a complicated situation what I needed to do was hand it over to God and hold to these simple truths.

When there is so much that I don’t know, it’s better to hold on to the truth that I do know.  Instead of trying to understand and control, I need to trust.

Sometimes I think it’s not as complicated as we make it.

“Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord— now and always.”  (Psalm 131 NLT)