Important Things Are Always Simple... But Oh So Hard!

An army colonel, known for his tongue in cheek humor offered a list of guidelines to new military officers. Even though somewhat humorous, the thoughts are somewhat profound.

The list include advice like:
1. “If it’s stupid but works, it isn’t stupid.”
2. “If your attack is going extremely well, it’s an ambush.”
3. “Anything you do can get you shot, including doing nothing.”
4. “If the enemy is in range, so are you.”

When you start to consider this colonel’s advice it doesn’t take much imagination before you can apply this advice to our journey with God. However there was one piece of advice that the colonel gave that takes no imagination or thought to see the application. The colonel said in his advice to new officers, “The important things are always simple; the simple things are always hard; the easy way is always mined.”

In light of this thought consider what Jesus has told us is the most important. “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)

The advice that Jesus gives here capsulizes, in just a few words what is the most important in order for us to experience a sense of fulfillment in this life. It’s pretty simple advice. It is certainly not difficult to understand. Yet as the colonel’s advice points out, “the simple things are always hard”. Whenever we take seriously the important things and trying to live them, we quickly come face to face with the hardness of living something simple.

Jesus here is calling on us to live unconditional love. He is telling us that the most important is an unconditional love for our Abba Father and for others. He is challenging us to follow His own example of this. The instruction is simple but to practice this in our own lives is another question. If you question the challenge of what really loving Him means think about how you respond when living loved means to have an attitude that you don’t want to have at a particular moment. Think about how you respond when loving others calls on you to act in a way that is contrary to how you want to act. Consider the challenge to live loved when others don’t deserve your love because they act in unlovable ways. The teaching is simple but often there is nothing harder than the practice.

This love thing is important and simple but yet so often it is very hard to consistently live it out in our lives in the real world. However my experience is that the alternative is worse. To chose not to try, and take the easy way of bitterness or apathy soon reveals a mine field of disaster.