Simple, Not Simplistic, Part 1

"I miss the days when I used to know everything." So begins a fitness blog I recently read.  It was about how the 'latest' and the 'greatest' scientific studies would tell you exactly what is best for your health in black and white terms...  "Eating fat will make you fat"; "Protein never results in weight gain"; "Coffee is really bad for you"; "Egg yolks are evil"... so on and so forth.  The point was how we so often gravitate toward these unequivocal statements.  The more adamant and simplistic the claims were, the more we thought them to be true.

But they were not.

Often, after several months, someone would publish another study that would soundly debunk the first study.  (Case in point: couple of years ago, people began to rally around the dangers of high fructose corn syrup. And it is true -- high consumption of high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, but so are 'regular' sugars.)  The truth of the matter is that being healthy is more about balance and moderation, requiring both self-discipline and accountability.  It is sometimes as simple as "walk more", but always bigger than a simplistic black-and-white solution that will magically make everything better.

By now you've caught on that I think spiritual life (or life) is like this.  We--especially in the church--are often prone to jumping from one big "do-this-and-you-will-find-transcendent-peace/purpose/success-in-life" bandwagon to another.  (Remember the Prayer of Jabez?  How did that work out?)

But spiritual life (life), while clearly it does not have to be complicated, can never be simplistic.  Over the next several posts, I want to reflect on this.  What are some 'simplistic' approaches or slogans that you've latched onto trying to jumpstart your faith life?