SIMPLE

Sourdough bread, four ingredients and time. Water, flour, salt, sourdough starter and lots and lots of time. On the recipe card it’s easy to wonder “how hard can this be?” As with many things in life the devil is in the details, so as much as you wonder how any of this could go wrong with four simple ingredients, there is a response “let me count the ways!!”

The age of the internet is great for watching a series of videos. I even made a video of myself to help a friend be able to see what each step along the way looked like in real time. After you get the hang of it, your back to simple… sort of! Problems still come up.

Problem solving in this instance involves living in as few variables as possible. But when trying to help people, I never underestimate the ability of people to overcomplicate the problem related to sourdough or anything else for that matter. I think good leadership in our day needs to break things down for people and simplify our instructions. As much as I would love to help people with sourdough/bonsai/basketball/football/spiritual growth theory, I recognize most people are more pragmatic in their pursuits. What works?

Enter our walk of faith, simple, profound, chaotic, peaceful, with a few bouts(or many) of “why is this happening to me?” In the chaos of life, simple becomes chaotic, the recipe seems to jump to 50 ingredients, most of which I don’t seem to have on hand. My perceived need of things I don’t have increases, the feeling of being overwhelmed which seems to add even more to the ingredient list.

Gideon was one of the Judges found in the book by the same name in the Bible. The recipe for Gideon was 1. Trust God who has helped you with all your other enemies. 2. Go with what you have and I will take care of things for you.

Gideons recipe. 1. I need a sign(cause you talking to me already wasn’t a sign!!??!!). 2. I need a sign, because the first two signs you gave me were not enough of a sign. 3. I need a sign… first three weren’t enough. 4. Going into battle means having an overwhelming force, Gideon wants numbers. But God recognizes they will just give the credit to themselves if they win. 30,000 soldiers becomes 10,000 soldiers then 10,000 becomes 300 soldiers. A different recipe, God’s recipe a simple recipe… unless of course your name is Gideon in which case you need to go back to the original instruction, “TRUST GOD.”

We live in a world that wants to overwhelm us with information and we become data junkies. Just another hit of info and all my anxiety will go away. There is a God who loves you, he is the God who created you, he made a plan for us to be reconciled to Him and each other, all he asks is that you and I trust him. Simple in idea, profound in expression.