Daily Devotion II Corinthians 11:3

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. - II Corinthians 11:3

Simplify.......

To be calm, to be serene! There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath of wind; there is the calmness of a stagnant ditch. So it is with us. Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some unconscious obedience to the all-just laws so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves. All the world goes by us and is reflected in our deeps. Such clarity! obtained by such pure means! by simple living, by honesty of purpose. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I rarely ever quote anything else but the Bible because it's the only thing ever written that is completely true and written under the inspiration of God.  But, here's a quote from Henry David Thoreau from his book Walden.  He was definitely the King of Simplify (and by the way, if you've never read this book, I highly recommend it just for the language of the book - I wish we could all talk like this).   He wasn't necessarily even a Christian, but there's something here that I think a lot of Christians could really grasp on to in so many areas of their lives.  There's such an easy simplicity about being a child of God.  How simple does it make your life to know that the whole purpose for us here on earth is to bring glory to God.  Some of the highest minds in history have devoted their whole lives to the question of 'why are we here' and, there, I just told them in one short sentence.  Pretty simple, huh?  Too often we just let the world get its claws into our lives and take the joy and the life out of us.  I get there more often than I'd like to admit.  I do have to admit, staking claim on some abandoned lake in the northeast sounds very appealing to me.  Sorry, but I'm just not a people person.  Being simple sounds appealing to me too.  I don't like to get busy to the point that my focus is off of God.  Ugh!  The computer, the phone, the door bell even are such a distraction.  And then you turn on the news......  It's easy to let life get the best of you.  But, there's more to "simplicity in Christ" than just the pureness of being a child of God.  There's the spiritual simplicity of God.  We try to reason things out, to wrap our minds around things.  It's our way of controlling things.  The problem with this mindset, is that leads to the world's influence in our lives.  Instead of just obeying the direction God has for us, we try to think it through first and ask other people's opinions:  "But, what if..." 

Simplify.  If there's something that's keeping you from doing your daily devotions, simplify.  If you feel God tugging at your heart to serve somewhere way out of your comfort zone, simplify.  The best thing we can do is find the center of God's will for our lives and just keep staying in the center.  That's where you'll find that joy and serenity that the simplicity of Christ can offer.