His Example

Mark 3:^{32-33 “}There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers.”

Today’s scripture reference is the crux of our learning on how Jesus simplified His life. Jesus was having a meeting and they told Him that His mother and brothers were outside. Jesus’ response was, “Look, these are my mother and brothers.” Jesus simplified His life so much that He said, the people He was doing life with were His family. Some of us when faced with the same scenario Jesus was faced with in today’s scripture, will abandon everything to do and attend to family and then come back to Jesus. God does not work that way. God is saying, simplify your life. Start from your commitment, start from your possessions. Church is wherever two or three are gathered in the Name of Jesus, right? When someone in Church says to Jesus, ‘I love You’ and hugs Him, Jesus has received the love of a mother. Jesus is not waiting until He gets home to Mary before He receives the love of a mother. Simplified life.

The dictionary definition for simplicity is the state or quality of being simple; something that is easy to understand or explain in contrast to something complicated. The opposite of simplicity is complexity. Let us check our lives – check your spiritual life, can you say your spiritual life is simple or complex? Check your finances, is the state of your finances simple or is it complex? Check your marriage, is your marriage relationship simple or is it complex? Check the relationships around you, and this applies to both single and married people, are the relationships around you simple or complex? Check your office space, that is as far as you can control, is it a simple set up or is it complex? Is your sphere of influence in the office simple and straightforward or is it complex? Check every part of your life and you will begin to see what you need to work on and where you need to apply Jesus’ lifestyle to create simplicity.

E. F. Schumacker says, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.” Can someone be intelligent and be a fool? Of course. Some people are intelligent and not wise. Wisdom is different from intelligence. There are a lot of intelligent but foolish people. There are also a lot of not so intelligent but wise people. Choose wisdom and simplicity.

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, I ask for the grace and the wisdom and courage to simplify my life, my relationships and my sphere of influence, in Jesus Name. Amen!