Core Values: Simplicity

“Martha was distracted with much serving…but one thing is necessary...Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40,42)

Busyness is an idol.

My heart has often worshipped at the idol of busyness in search of self-worth, importance in the eyes of the people around me, a distraction from hard things…the list goes on and on. 

Our culture idolizes busyness. Perhaps more disturbingly, American church culture tends to idolize busyness as well. 

It’s easy to clutter our schedules with so many meetings, activities, and programs that we choke out any semblance of rest and joy. Sometimes we get so busy "living our lives" that we forget to truly live our lives. Sometimes we get so busy serving, we forget why we serve in the first place. 

One of my favorite sayings is, "Even a good thing can become a bad thing when it becomes a substitute for the best thing."

Serving is a good, beautiful, necessary thing. But it becomes a bad thing when it becomes a substitute for listening to Jesus. It becomes an idol when it morphs into busyness.

The antidote for the idol of busyness – the wrecking ball that demolishes it and unmasks it for the damage it truly does – is Psalm 46:10. “Be still and know that I am God.” The simplicity of this command catches us off guard. It is a blow across the bow of our busyness-obsessed culture.

Simplicity is one of our core values as a church family. 

We desire to be like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, speechless at His magnificence and wisdom, in awe of His kindness, moved into stillness by His very existence. 

We desire to be ready and willing to lay aside our agendas, our busyness, and our distractions to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. 

We desire to serve purposefully from a place of awe, wonder, and love, rather than from a place of mindless repetition and obligation.

Father, still our hearts and our minds. Show us what it is to sit at the feet of Jesus, listen to His voice, and then live out His final words on this earth… “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth…” We want to serve, we want to be about your business…but please help us not to overcomplicate or clutter your cause! Demolish our idol of busyness. Help us to understand rest and work as You do. Father, YOU transform hearts, You give grace, You give life, You change people, towns, and nations. You do. Apart from You, our work is futile. With You, there’s no limit to what will happen. Focus us on You, Lord. Focus our hearts. Focus our minds. Focus our calendars. Focus our church family. On knowing and loving You, which enables us to know and love each other. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

With great joy and love,
Erika