The beauty of simplicity
This morning, like many mornings, I was about to put in my contact lenses when at some point I found myself with a lens on the index finger of my left hand and, in my right hand, the bottle of cleaning solution still to be opened.
This whole operation, which made me feel limited, was solved by being able to unscrew the bottle with the palm of my left hand, where I then held the cap, with the lens still on the index finger of the same hand.
How much operability, how much skill, how much dexterity capable of doing things. I almost rejoiced at being able to do all this, but a question immediately arose in me.
How could someone who doesn't have the same dexterity understand it?
Yes, how could I rejoice telling it to someone who has no hand, who has a disability or was born without one? I was thinking of a hypothetical person who would look at me and, why not, rejoice with me, while suffering inside for something they could never discover. In this hypothetical person a perhaps impossible desire would be born.
Very often the desire to obtain something impossible makes us chase standards that aren't ours. I wonder why all these questions over such a simple operation as putting in my lenses, something I've been doing for about 30 years now.
It's the dawn of a new day, a morning when the brain starts laying things out for you, a mirror that sets before you what you are in the naturalness of waking up. The fact is, the question had started and my mind began to give its answers.
In life it happens very often, or rather, let me correct myself, always, that we desire something that is ultimately bigger than our possibilities. That's exactly why very often, or rather, always, we compare ourselves with something bigger than us. And so it ends up that the desire or the will to reach that thing makes us want it ardently, whatever it takes. But can we stubbornly keep jumping to catch a bird with our hands?
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
1 Timothy 6:7-8
How beautiful is simplicity?
From questions in the mirror to the joy of simplicity. I was comforted by the answer that came to me from the first letter to Timothy, because I grasped this fantastic statement of Paul's that put my feet back on the ground. Our simplicity lies in having arrived on this earth, in the form in which we find ourselves, and we have nothing more we can add; in fact, having food and clothing, we'll already be at the top. As we arrive, so we go. Everything complete in life is like a mother's womb: a life, nourishment and a warm, protected place.
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
1 Timothy 6:9
Nooo, I didn't stop at verses 7 and 8, verse 9 caught me too, because it's the consequence of our days, of our labours, of supporting our families, and the cause of reaching our desires, our dreams. The beautiful verses make you dream and open your mind despite their simplicity; then come the concrete verses that need no explanation. They're written so directly that you can only say: it's true, that's how it is.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10
So I was talking about concreteness and the single purpose of a verse. Love can't be divided between a love of wealth and a love of living your own being and your blessing of being able to eat and shelter from the cold or the heat. There is no love as complicated as the love of money. Who hasn't suffered from it, and who isn't still suffering from it?
Who has wandered from the faith, or never had it, or put their hope in something else? If it's true that faith comes from hearing, probably that someone began to put their faith in something else.
We start from our innate abilities and sometimes reach limits we never thought we'd reach; we begin to see things from another perspective and become unable to come back down to earth. Society pushes us up, but it's also capable of crushing us back down.
If we want to keep our feet on the ground without being lifted up and crushed, only to be lifted up and crushed again, let's try to look at the simplicity of what we are, how we were created, and let's glory in being fed and well clothed, because everything else is freedom and enjoying such a beautiful passage through this great creation.
Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing? Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no snare has been set? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything? When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken, who can but prophesy?
Amos 3:3-8
I believe the time has come to ask ourselves questions about this present time, about our life, what we're doing and above all what we're putting our faith in. The answers about your life, your faith and simplicity are up to you.
