Simple Faith

Somewhere along the way, I got tired of complicated living, or perhaps I never liked it in the first place.   I like keeping things simple, which includes how I dress, how I fix my hair, not bothering with make-up or jewelry, how my house looks, how I eat, who I love and how I choose to worship God.  I guess,  I like things real, honest and the "what you see, is what you get" sort of mentality.  Recently I was talking to someone about how I personally and I am not talking about anyone other than myself here, that I could not in good conscience, dye my hair or have stuff done to my face in order to look younger than I am.  All I can imagine, is that expression you see on some mans face when he cat calls to a woman walking away from him.  Cute body, hair the color of a sweet young thing, and then she turns around and she is old enough to be his mother.   He was tricked.  Sure it was his call, he didn't have to do that, but not a woman alive, if given a lie detector test, would disagree that this woman was not trying to look younger than she is.  Why do we worship youth, why do we dislike so much, the truth that we are getting older ?  O.K. now to the simple faith part of this.  I have come to the conclusion, that God knows best, about everything, including aging.  I also have come to understand something about myself.  I seem to like my spiritual life to be simple.  Jesus did too I think, since he told people in Matthew 22...37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”    Imagine if we just concentrated on two things, of course those two things end up including a whole lot of behaviors.     Which kind of takes me to the first part of this post, we don't need to try and fool others into thinking we are something we aren't.   
I like worship to be simple too.  I don't watch loud TV shows, go to concerts,  or go to the movies.  I would much rather watch the birds from my back porch or spend time walking in the woods.   So, it makes sense that I don't much care for a church service that has loud music or has a Hollywood feel to it.  I like songs that are easy to hear the words, and inspire about Gods love for us. I actually like simple scripture songs.   Simple stuff.  I don't want to hear from a preacher that lives in a mansion or owns a jet.  I want to hear from someone that loves Jesus so much that his life reflects the simplicity of Christs words.   I want to hear about living a better life from someone that is humble like Christ was.  I don't want any politics in church and I sure don't want to hear about how to become prosperous and attain all the "things" you want.   I want to hear about how to live in peace, attain a heart that is full of compassion for even the most unlovable of the world.   I want to hear about the joy of living a full life that is about service to others and how to mend fences and how not to judge.   I want to hear sermons that come from the RED words in the New Testament.  You know, the words Jesus actually spoke.  They are beautiful, simple, uncomplicated, directives for living a good life.  I want to hear about living the life of the beatitudes.  To be reminded, not to worry.  To be reminded we have purpose, to be reminded that our words should be full of love, to be reminded, not to worry about what we eat, what we wear.  To find the road that leads to a single minded purpose of love and compassion.  To discover we don't really want to watch or read things where others are killing one another or messing up their lives.    I want a simple, honest faith, with no glitz and glamour.  No frills.  Just honesty and clear direction.   I suspect I am not alone in this but it sure is hard to find.