Thursday, February 18, 2010

Need for Simplicity

Ecclesiastes 7:29, "See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes."

We make our lives more complicated than they need be. I was thinking today about how many people are employed in jobs only because human nature is to crave complexity versus simplicity.

Take the Christian faith. One of favorite authors JC Ryle said, "I wish to be as broad as the Bible, neither less nor more." How much more effective would the Christian faith be if all Christians lived by this motto? Millions of dollars are wasted in arguing over areas of the faith that the Bible is not crystal clear on. Seminaries are constructed to defend these doctrinal differences. In a class that I took at a seminary, my professor joked when discussing the mode of baptism, "This is what we call a theological controversy. Or in other words, job security for guys like me."

The tax code is another example. If you were designing a tax system from scratch would you ever dream of it being 70,320 pages long? I was chosen at random a couple of years ago for a line-by-line audit of my full tax return. There were some questions during the audit that came up where my auditor was confused as to what the tax law was. And how could you not be? A tax code that started with 400 pages in 1913 is now 176 times more complex.

In health care, 40% of the money that goes into the system never comes out. The middle consumes it- administration. That makes no sense. It is estimated that we spend over $700 billion per year on excess administrative costs. It would cost less than $200 billion per year to cover all the uninsured.

As humans, we are naturally predisposed to make our lives complicated. It is part of our fallen nature. But one of our greatest needs is to seek simplicity daily. John Piper in a sermon that I watched online recently proclaimed, "We never outgrow our need to hear the gospel." It is a simple faith. Question #1 in the 1647 Westminster Confession: "what is the chief end of man? To know God and enjoy Him forever." We could spend our whole life asking God to help us fulfill this.

The cares and clutter of life will consume us and render us ineffective if we allow it. I have some practical steps for simplifying life.

1. Time with God as the first priority of every day. Read and meditate on His word. Write down God's promises to you and commit them to memory. Keep a prayer journal where you record requests and answers to prayer.

2. In your work, focus on doing a few things well. Recently, I have kept a list of 4-5 things that I want to accomplish that day. Eliminate or decrease distractions. Set aside an hour each day to return phone calls and emails. Crave simple focus. Don't multitask. My wife- Amy- and I were watching a PBS program about the ineffectiveness of multitasking. The program showed the declining academic results at Ivy League schools because so many kids are using smartphones or laptops to surf the internet during lectures. Retention suffers dramatically when we don't give a task our full attention.

3. Set aside a few hours each day for relationships. Whether it is connecting with friends, family, neighbors or acquaintances, strive to give undivided attention to the relationships that you value. For me, 6pm- 8pm is this time daily.

4. Purge, purge, purge. Purge things out of your life every day. Possessions that are choking up space in your home need to be given away. Make it your motto in everything you do to find the simplest way to live. Don't sign up for activities that you don't value greatly. Don't be afraid to say "no". The good is the enemy to the great.

5. Simplify your health- being healthy usually comes down to 3 things: eating good foods but in less quantity; exercising 5 hours per week; and managing stress well by getting the proper amount of rest and keeping short accounts with God and others. Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." Romans 12 is a simple approach to the Christian faith. It wouldn't be a bad idea to read these verses every day for a month so that they are imprinted on the mind and heart.

As always I preach to myself first.

For the simple life and faith,

Ashley Hodge

Monday, February 08, 2010

Ed Young Jr Follow-Up

Around four years ago I wrote some blogs about Ed Young Jr. of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. I questioned the transparency and financial ethics that were taking place in the leadership of the church.

Those blog posts can be found below:

http://stewardshipmandate.blogspot.com/2006/01/tale-of-two-pastors.html

http://stewardshipmandate.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-now-shall-we-give.html

This past week, I noticed some activity in the comment section of that first blog. I figured something was up. A friend informed me that WFAA- the ABC affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth had run an investigative piece on Ed Young Jr concerning his luxurious lifestyle.

The video and article of that piece can be viewed here.

I take no joy in having insight or discernment on this issue. My commitment is to pray for Ed and the ministry of Fellowship Church and that others will not be lead astray by the false idols of prosperity and luxury. I believe many people have come to a conversion experience with Christ through Fellowship Church and I rejoice in that.

My concern is that what is taking place with the prosperity gospel crowd is potentially going to jeopardize tax-favored status for the majority of minsters of the gospel who are not earning large sums of money and who are laboring for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

Let's be serious here. Million dollar pastoral salaries; $240k per year "parsonage" allowances to buy and support expensive homes; using $8 million private jets purchased with church funds to travel and take personal vacations; dressing in the finest designer clothes; and undergoing elective plastic surgery are all viewed by most ordinary folks with disdain.

It would not shock me if tax exempt status for religious organizations is removed or revamped as a result. There are plenty of voices pushing for it already and stories like this give those voices ample ammunition. As the government looks for ways to increase revenue to pay for large deficits, ministries like Ed Young's that are allegedly using tax-exempt status to line pockets with wealth become easy prey.

Praying for an outcome that glorifies God,

Ashley Hodge