“It’s Simple, but it’s not Easy”

If you are up late at night you have seen them, those infamous infomercials about anything and everything all designed with one thing in mind – to make your life easier so you will buy it. They make it sound so urgent – limited time, limited product – and if I order in the next thirty minutes, I can get a second one for free, plus shipping and handling of course.

I can get a chopper that won’t make me cry when I cut onions. I can get a blender that will grind nails so fine I would think they are flaxseed in my oatmeal. I can even buy a set of knives that can cut through a tin can, should I ever feel the need to cut through a tin can. And don’t get me started on the creams, serums and whitening solutions that will make me look years younger and pounds lighter. I promise you, I am “not in love with the mirror” right now.  

The announcer always makes it look so simple – to cut the veggies, to flip the omelet, to get that stain out, to lose the weight. But when you get the product home, you realize it is not so easy after all.  It may be simple, but it is not easy.

The same can be said about our faith journey.  It is pretty simple – love God and love others – but it is not always so easy.  People will step on our last nerve, kids will test our patience, co-workers will undercut our commissions and total strangers will cut us off in traffic.  We try our best to be kind, be slow to anger, and quick to forgive – you know all that stuff we learned in Sunday school – but before you know it the alarm goes off and we have to get out of bed, and it usually goes downhill from there.  

If that ever happens to you, you are not alone.  My advice is to keep trying.  Take a deep breath and then start again to love God and love others.  It really is that simple.

On the journey,

Ramonalynn Bethley

Ramonalynn Bethley is the Lead Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Alexandria. You can contact Ramonalynn directly at DrRevRL@FUMCA.org