Many years ago I came across a book by Richard Foster titled, “The Freedom of Simplicity.”  It resonated with me for two reasons.  1) I don’t have capacity to keep a lot of things going at the same time and 2) Trying to keep a lot of things going at the same time is not a healthy way to live.  I knew people that had “a lot of irons in the fire” and it seemed like I should be like them.  The problem was, all those irons want a lot of attention and my humanity was often overwhelmed with the details.  Life is complicated enough without adding more things to the mix.  Foster made it quite clear that complexity is the trick of the enemy to keep us distracted from the main thing—our life with God.  The busy life is often extolled, honored and celebrated.  Our culture looks up to people who are on the go, in the know and on a roll.  But that way of living is not the way to life.  Simplicity of life does not mean a life of navel-gazing.  (Navel-gazing is “excessive contemplation of oneself or a single issue, at the expense of a wider view.”)  Simplicity means the freedom to see the wider view with less clutter.  Complexity is the enemy of eternal life.  It distracts us from the Kingdom.  Sometimes life is complex, no matter what we do, it comes at us without regard for our plans or schedule.  If we are not single-minded, it will be very hard to navigate our way.  I hope you can join us Sunday for Paul’s vision of simplicity.  He counted all things as loss for excellency of one thing—do you know what it was?