The Simple Life Ain’t So Easy


Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. Genesis 9:1-3

The Lord was now able to give the remaining family members their “marching orders,” so to speak. God blessed them, and gave them every living creature for their well-being. They would need to procreate and repopulate the earth. It would all take time, and they had plenty of it. So did the Lord.

We’re always in a rush, aren’t we? People push us to get things done quickly. The proposals I work on usually have 30 day time limit. If we’re not finished in 30 days we automatically are disqualified from that opportunity. Then again, if there were no time limits, nothing would be accomplished.

Noah and his family didn’t have that problem. If they didn’t know how to do something, they’d have to figure it out. Life was much simpler back then in the sense that finding and growing food was the number one job. They didn’t have the supermarket or convenience store. If they don’t bring in food, they don’t eat. Simple but not easy.

I long for the simple life. No cares. No worries. No “fires” to put out. The minimalist movement hasn’t taken hold yet, and the way society is moving, I doubt it ever will. There are just too many things competing for our attention. And God often gets the short end of the time stick. Too many things to do, so I’ll have to forgo prayer or Bible reading. I believe it was Martin Luther who said, “My schedule is so full that I need to spend more time in prayer over that schedule.” That’s probably the better attitude to have.


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