It seems that life was much simpler when I was younger. I am not thinking so much about the type of the decisions we have to make as adults as opposed to when we were younger, but more of the basics of life, or how we view our world and operate in it. As a child, there were a few basic guidelines that provided the foundation for life: God is love. God is good. God works in mysterious ways (aka God's ways are not our ways). Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Take the lowest seat. Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. Give thanks in all things. Seek first the Kingdom of God. These pretty much sum up my early Christian education.  

With these basic understandings, you could live a pretty good, joyful life. So what has changed? Is life more complex now because we are more conscious of what we perceive as the gray areas? Has our awareness of politics & world events somehow made living life by these principles naïve? Has genetic research limited God's love? How does corporate culture impact Jesus' admonition to take the lowest seat? Has science compromised the Golden Rule? Do we really know so much more now, that it must cause us to reevaluate the most simple of truths?

On the contrary, I think that perhaps our main problem as adults is that we have thought ourselves into confusion, and now somehow believe that these "grown-up" issues are really too complicated for us to rely on these simple Bible truths. Or, perhaps we have started to believe that what someone else does somehow affects how we should live. Whatever the cause, it is all to easy to forget what was once was so evident to us as children. No wonder Jesus said that unless we change and become as little children, we will not enter the Kingdom of God. (Matt. 18:3).

I think living in the Kingdom in a large part is believing that God is love, even when terrorists strike. It's believing that God is good even when bad things happen to good people. Kingdom living is knowing that as smart and sophisticated as we think we are, we only understand in part. This is not to imply that we are to be fatalistic, but rather to know that how God works all things to our good is indeed a mystery. Just believing these truths would change our lives for the better. And, if we believed these things, perhaps we could start to believe the other things. How much would life change if we practiced taking the lowest seat? Just think of the impact on families, politics, and even on church boards!

But, problems arise when we start over-analyzing things -- for example, when we start analyzing what it means for God to be good. If we start tweaking the meaning or presuming our own definitions, then we start saying, "well, if God were really good, this one thing wouldn't have happened." Tell me, where does it say that? Where does it say that being good means that God will do what you want Him to or what you can understand? 

No, believing that God is good means that when things happen we don't understand, or don't like, we respond by saying, "I don't understand this, but I believe God still loves us, and that He is good, and is working things out for good. I will still seek first the Kingdom. I will still love God and my neighbor. I will still give thanks." Isn't that, after all, the gist of the psalms? David's strength, it would seem, was his undying faith in the goodness and love of God, even when he didn't understand why God wouldn't wipe out all of his enemies, or even when he was confronted by his own sin. If we can learn only one thing from the life of David, it is, as Paul so aptly stated, "nothing can separate us from the love of God."

Cloning, stem-cell research, tension in the Middle East and corporate politics do not really complicate the basics of life. Nor is anything we encounter at work more complicated than what Joseph encountered in Egypt. There will continue to be wars and people will continue to sin; that hasn't changed (there is nothing new under the sun). To love God and love our neighbor (I think we can safely include all of humanity in the definition of neighbor) are still the two all-encompassing commandments.

I think that becoming like children means that we have to re-learn to see things to be as simple as they really are, and to not let the things that we don't understand cloud the things that that we know to be true. So, believe that God is good, that He loves you, and that your understanding is not a requirement for faith. Trust God enough to practice humility, and trust that God truly does reward what we do in secret, in spite of what others may be doing around you.

Perhaps life can be made simple once again.