Church sign of the week 12

LIVE SIMPLY, SPEAK KINDLY, LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY

This week's sign, in it's own way, is every bit as controversial as last week's. At its heart this message, though simple in appearance, is very disturbing. Most of us, if we are truly honest with ourselves, would find it difficult to do any one of these three phrases justice.

Live simply

How many of us really live simply? Here I am, sitting in a coffee shop drinking a very nice orange juice typing this on my iPad while waiting for my mobile phone to ring so I can go off and meet a couple of people who wish to spend $10000's on their wedding.

We do not live simply and we do not live in a simple world. Even the two monks I know have iPhones and laptops. We sip our lattes and eat our focaccias, sitting in our designer clothes, behind our designer glasses, while surfing the net our tablets on the wifi that is ubiquitous in our cities. Certainly anything but the simply life.

I doubt it is possible for most of us to live simply in the true sense of the word. Life is far too complicated and we are to imbedded in it, but I'm sure it's possible for us to live simpler and share the gifts we have been given.

If statistics can be believed - if we have any food in our fridges and any money in our pockets we are better off than 92% of the world's population. You and I are in the top 10% of people that live on this planet - surely it is our duty to live simpler lives and help the 90% of our neighbours that don't have what we do, food and clothes for example.

Speak kindly

This one is the easiest of the three, of course we can speak more kindly to people. How hard can it be to be a bit nicer - smile a little easier - be a little kinder? We can all do it, but I'm of the opinion that this quote should go a little deeper. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say "think kindly". As easy as it is to speak kindly it is not so easy to think kindly. Behind our grinning faces and honey coated words many of us (me included) would be horrified if people could hear what we are thinking.

"How are you?" we say. "Please don't tell me, I don't have the time" is what we think.
"Would you a coffee" we ask. "Say no!" we think.

Yes speak more kindly but let us think more kindly too!

Love unconditionally

Good luck!

If you find how to do this let me know - let everyone know - it will make the world a better place.

"God IS love" is in the Bible. I believe it. He is. I also believe he loves us unconditionally. He does not love the people we could be - he loves the people we are.

We, however, are not divine. We put boundaries on our love. There are conditions on our affections. We put limits on the type of people and the individuals we love. These limits can range from whether they share our views on things to do they fit into our idea of attractive and a million other variables.

We also find reasons not to love people and these reasons can be even more diverse than our reasons for loving people. We don't like their attitude to they have a funny smell or any number of other ideas. It is impossible for us to love unconditionally - but it is not impossible for us to try! And that, I think, is what God asks of us. To love as much as we can and as hard as we can whoever we can.

As we get to know him more the loving of others becomes easier, never unconditional but with fewer and fewer conditions.

‘I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:40


A brief explanation of the origin of these week's sign.

I love quotes, I have loads of them scribbled and stored in various places. From the profound to the profoundly funny and everything in between. This sign is, for me, very hard to put up as I know it is misquote. More than that, it is a deliberate misquote. Deliberate misquotes are dangerous things. I have taken a few words out, rearranged the order and changed a word from Ronald Reagan's famous words,

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.”

I don't usually do that because it changes what the person was trying to say. Consider this minor change in a couple of the Ten Commandments -

"I am the LORD, your God. You shall no other god before me. For I am a jealous God, thou shalt kill...."

A minor change of words, a major change in meaning!

Hopefully my changes to this quote are not as radical and bring a better meaning, not a harsher one, to light. S.