Please God, keep me simplistic

I have been accused of being too simplistic. I have been told to get with the program so to say and go with the times. Let those words go from my accusers' mouths to God's ear and always be true. For I am a believer in God, his authority and his never changing nature. Thus, I am not subject to the changing nature and beliefs of mankind, nor the stress of keeping up with the world.

My goal in life is to become simpler still, to remove the overdone in my life and the confusion of the world; to strip away the opinions of passing trends or secular philosophies and rely completely upon the divinity of God.

I remember the words within a play written in the 1940's... "Lord, do you need a smart man to do your work here on earth?" .. was the question asked of God... God spoke, "give me a holy man I will make him smart." I don't need to be smart in the eyes of the world, but only try to be holy in the eyes of God, and leave my training to the God who created me, and whose knowledge is pure. This does not mean that I do not promote education to the best of one's capacity. What I mean the search for knowledge for knowledge's sake; for I am in search of wisdom... this is not found in books or lecture halls.

I have known and know, very educated people, many who have faith in God and many who do not. I have found those with faith in addition to knowledge were more genuine and interesting people. There usually is no need in these people to flaunt their education or demonstrate it. One could tell that knowledge was within the person, but they somehow bowed to a greater and higher awareness then that which, they learned. As for those with much knowledge and no faith, they somehow have a need to demonstrate their knowledge or act it out within their being and project it out to others. It is as if their person is only defined through their knowledge and this was the source of their personal strength and inner stability.

Spirituality is not in conflict with knowledge one can have both, we can have earthly knowledge but it should not posses us for we belong to God. To make knowledge divine in any manner is raising it to the status of god, and an impotent one at that, for who can touch the knowledge of the one, true God.

It takes just one stroke or brain tumor to rid a person of all their human knowledge, but nothing can rob you of your spirituality and faith. For even after a catastrophic illness or event we still have our presence, our soul which is eternal. There will come a time when all is taken away from us on earth such being called, our death. Death being the great equalizer, death does not check for a college degree or position in life it comes to us all. God is in control of everything even the most intelligent whether they choose to believe this or not. Do not worry about the loss of anything in the material world it really means nothing.

So I am simplistic. Oh, yes, please say it is so and I consider it a blessing. Keep me small Lord, and keep me simple. Let me be at peace wherever I am.

Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, gave us a hint on how to be simplistic when she said, "Live simply, that others may simply live".