God is simple

Recently, my parents were putting the screens in windows for summertime. A key piece that holds things together fell out into the flower bed below. I heard them struggling to find it and thought maybe I could lend some assistance, so I decided to go help them look. It was a little metal piece in a sea of tall green flower stems, and I asked God to help us find it. Within a couple minutes, I accidentally stepped on it.

Somehow, I am always amazed when my prayers are answered. I so easily forget how loved we are by God. God cares about anything that matters to us.

Fr. Jason Schumer says there are five attitudes that keep us from living in the freedom of God's goodness; it is clarifying to have these attitudes put into words and pointed out as frauds. They include quiet atheism, which undermines our confidence in God rather than allowing us to live from the deep belief that God is worthy of our confidence; hidden idolatry, which allows something other than God to hold our life together rather than allowing God to be the foundation and center; skepticism, which has us doubt God or explain good things away as something other than God when in reality it is God at work bringing about all good things; sophistication, which makes God and our relationship with God complicated rather than living from the truth that God is simple and makes our relationship with him simple; and distrust, which causes us to live out of mistrust of God rather than living out of the knowledge that we are deeply loved and taken care of by God.

Really, living in the freedom of God's goodness comes down to this: we can take God at God's word. We are God's Beloved. In the same way that someone who loves us wants to be with us and wants us to be happy, our God wants to be with us and wants us to be happy. When we invite God along for happenings in our lives throughout the day, of course God is going to come along and be there. He cares for us.

When we know and believe this, we are set free to be that same kind of blessing to others.

Recently I listened to a podcast about community and the ways we need each other. In it, Dr. Charles Mugisha mentioned that when we reach out to another, we bless their life. I think sometimes it can be easy to fear that by reaching out to others I am somehow going to burden them; I love the idea that the opposite is true. When we reach out in friendship to people, we bless. Love multiplies, and we each have so much to give; when we reach out in love, we become the blessing people pray for.

So, the invitation is this: if it's a good thought or desire that you have, act on it. We never know how these small things might impact someone and be a way that God loves them throughout their day.

Let's be simple like children who believe the words of those who love them. We can trust that God so wants to be with us. We can trust God.