KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is simple/single (ἁπλοῦς, i.e., not mixed, not complex), your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil (πονηρὸς), your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mt 6:22-23)

An “evil” eye or perspective is devoid of God’s simplicity, or His stabilizing, ever-merciful perspective. When I spend too much time with my own thoughts and without prayer, I tend to get overwhelmed by my own “overthinking” of things. Or I misuse my thinking capacities (the “lamp” of my body) to speculate about the future or past, in pointless “what ifs.”

In faith and through faith, I find that my most hopelessly-complicated situations become simple, when I just walk through them as I am called to, according to my vocation. Because the cross-carrying journey, I find, is a simple “program” for complicated people. So let me simplify matters today, if I’m overwhelmed with my own thinking, and let God in a little more. Thy will be done, O Lord, just for today. Amen!