FMF Simple
17:02
“It’s easy when you know how!” we say smugly in light-hearted pride.
Some things are easy for you that for me may be far from easy.
For me, speaking English is easy.
It’s ‘like riding a bike’ – which for me is also easy.
Reading a novel is easy for me (though finding the time to do it is less easy).
On the other hand, for my Iraqi friend, reading a novel in English, or in any language, remains so difficult as to be practically impossible.
“It’s easy when you know how.”
Yes, but easy does not mean simple.
I have been teaching my friend to read and write in English, and boy! English spelling and grammar is certainly not simple!!!
With the boot on the other foot, millions of people speak Hindi fluently, but I have been learning it for 2 years and am far from even able to hold a simple conversation.
Language learning is complex, it is far from simple – yet most of us learn it with ease.
Clearly, for something to be ‘easy’ for somebody, does not mean that it is simple.
Simple, to me, means that very few steps are involved in the learning.
Not a whole alphabet, but a simple ‘do A’.
It is one next step.
A clear instruction.
No fuss, no confusion.
Direct and unambiguous.
But simple does not mean that it is easy!
In our complex and complicated world, living simply is very difficult.
God’s instructions to His people are simple.
Jesus’ commission to His disciples is simple.
But are they easy?
I don’t think so!
To love my enemy is not easy.
To love my neighbour as myself is not easy.
To follow Jesus is not easy.
To obey all that He has commanded is not easy.
But it is simple, clear and unambiguous.
And to God, and with God, as the angel Gabriel tells us, all things will be possible.
Stop
This advent let’s echo Mary’s exchange with the angel Gabriel told in Luke’s account, as Mary simply believes that with God nothing is impossible and chooses to obey Him:
(Luke 1:37-38)
For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Simple, but not easy.
Or easy, but not simple.
dawnfanshawe 
Love this. And so very true that Jesus’s instructions are simple but not easy to follow but we can with the grace of our Lord enabling us to do so.
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Exactly, Manu. Thank you for your encouragement as always, lovely lady. x
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