Before I begin, let me clarify, I believe finding simplicity in life is very important. We are met with a barrage of complications daily and finding ways to live simply and avoid materialism are very important.
However, I am discovering that is if there is something people are not, it is simple.
Many of us, myself included, would like to convince others and ourselves that we are simple.
A, B, and C makes us happy, so what is really complicated about that anyway? While AB&C may truly make us happy, on closer inspection there is a problem with that. AB&C will not continuously make us happy.We are molded and shaped in many ways by many experiences and many people. This accumulation of personality and history have made us all complicated. However, this type of complicated, I think, is beautiful.
When you first meet people, they are like dimly lit rooms. The sun shines through the window in the corner; the walls are freshly painted. There might even be some quirky quotations on the wall, a welcome mat by the door, and possibly some furniture set up. However, as you venture into the room, you notice the neatly framed quotations hide cracks from where the room has settled. The furniture is covering numerous scratches, and you notice the couch is attempting to replace the emptiness that would have been there. The sunlight is sometimes replaced with clouded skies and maybe even the occasional storm. The corner farthest from the window has even experienced water rot and has caved in. On closer inspection, the room is dingy. It has a lot of nice parts, but now, the facade is gone.
We put on such a show for others; it's tiresome.
It's interesting to me that we are taught to expect simplicity from others when we, ourselves, are unable to achieve it.
Not to be cliche and rag on Disney movies (I quite enjoy them.), but, please, look at the characters. I'll use Cinderella for an example. (I mean, they are getting better I think...Nemo has some depth. [excuse the ocean joke] ) Cinderella is portrayed as this happy singing chic who submissively serves her purely evil stepmother. Why is her stepmother so bitter anyway? If Cinderealla has so many "wishes her heart makes when she is fast asleep," why doesn't she go after them? These characters are so one dimensional. Cinderella is "good" and her stepmother is "evil."
It doesn't work that way. It would be easier if it was that simple, but it's not.
I have parts of me that are dark. She is the part of me who makes snap judgements about people who I later learn to love. She is the part of me who lashes out in anger when I am inconvenienced. She is the one who has a short fuse. She is the one that is ceaselessly impatient. She is the one who lacks self-control.
I praise Jesus for healing this part of me. I praise Him for being so much greater and full of more grace than I am full of darkness. It is such a process. He knows, ha. Thankfully, I know He has already triumphed.
We see this in ourselves, but we hide it so well. I feel healing can be found when we can find the courage to be candid with one another.
We need to understand that we are all complicated people. And that is okay.
Simplicity within people is like pixie dust: sparkly, rare, and lacking substance.
Complicated is beautiful.
