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As a freshman in college, to fulfill a core requirement, I had to sit through an Intro to Psychology course. I was not at all eager to learn the world's psychological theories. Actually, 'suspicion' would better describe my attitude and approach. On the first day of the class, the GTA assigned to teach the course thought she would do something rather cute and funny to break the ice. She passed around a roll of toilet paper simply saying, "Each one of you take as much of this as you want; we'll be doing something with it a little later." My suspicion set in early. I took one square. Once everyone had taken some, the GTA said, "Now, we're going to go around the room, and each person has to tell us one thing about themselves for each square of toilet paper they took." At that moment, I felt brilliant! When my turn came and I indicated that I had only taken one square, she, of course, didn't believe me. Other students had to convince her that it was true. Once convinced, she asked in her psychological and analytical tone, "So, tell me; why did you only take one?" I figured I could play the psychoanalysis game and make her think a bit. So I replied, "I guess I just like to keep things simple." Well, all who know me know that that was a lie. I am anything but simple. I tend to make the simplest things complex, unintentionally (most of the time). Brooke is always telling me to speak English to the children, and this is not because I'm bi-lingual, because I'm not. I just struggle to communicate in simple terms. At times, that has been a source of pride for me, but lately and especially today it seems more like a vice. Today, on two different occasions, I have come across the idea of simplicity in my reading. With all of the buzz around Simple Church these days, the word has a sort of negative flavor to me, but today was different. The first encounter came from the pen of Charles Spurgeon and the second from Matthew Henry, two men I greatly respect. In his book, The Soul Winner, Spurgeon encourages simplicity in communicating the gospel (p. 45-49). Certainly, this is not to be confused with simplicity in understanding, for he did also consider the study of God to be the highest science. But nonetheless, I'm challenged by his call for simple communication. Commenting on Romans 16:19, Matthew Henry wrote, "To be so wise as not to be deceived, and yet so simple as not to be deceivers. It is a holy simplicity not to be able to contrive, nor carry on any evil design..." It seems to me that this level of wisdom in association with simplicity is indicative of one's abilities to both clearly understand conceptual ideas and concretely communicate them in real terms. It is by wisdom evaluating the complexities of the shades of grey and by simplicity walking in the clarity of the black and white. Jesus was the master at communicating concretely the complex realities of spiritual things. I'm taking a short break from The Book of Acts in my preaching schedule and spending four weeks in some parables where this concrete communication of complex realities is on it's highest display. And on a day when I've been challenged to speak more simply, I am preparing to expose the complexities taught through Jesus' simple parables. To put it simply, I'm learning that simplicity is not that simple. I think my Psychology GTA already knew that, because I cannot describe in words the shift of countenance she displayed when I said, "I guess I just like to keep things simple." It was as if she was genuinely intrigued by my answer which indicated to her some deep complexity of personality.
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