Tuesday Evening


Simplicity


Simplicity is humility's most genuine expression and humility is the single stance through which the Spirit may be mediated. This is why an ancient psalmist reminds us that the decrees of heaven make the wise appear simple and also why the author of the second most published book in history, The Imitations of Christ, informs us that purity and simplicity are the two wings upon which we are able to soar above all that is temporal.

Perhaps the decision for simplicity is so important to our spiritual development because love is also simple. After all, patience, kindness, and freedom, three of love's exquisite facets, are so simple children not yet old enough to speak may express them beautifully.

Recently I sat next to a young man on a bench at a treatment center and out of respect for his right to be alone with his thoughts, I simplified my greeting by limiting it to a nod. As I soaked up the warmth provided by the day's waning sun, another man who appeared to be about the same age as my fellow bench-sitter arrived to greet me with a handshake. After bidding me a good afternoon, he settled next to the silent man and stared straight ahead for a bit as if he was pondering what next to say. After a sigh, he said to the silent man, "I know you're thinking of leaving treatment, but I hope you don't do that."

A minute, maybe two, passed before the once-silent man responded with what I took to be honest curiosity. He asked, "So why do you care?" His compatriot answered with a simple profundity that rang with the kind of truth that can only come from the soul. He said, "Because I now know that expressing real love and not the manipulative stuff I once offered to others is what it takes for me to stay well. I guess you could say that my caring about you is a part of my 12th-Step. So in a way it's selfish for me to care about you and about your recovery, but I've come to believe that this is a good and healthy selfishness."

This recovering man's expression of love was uncomplicated; pure, I suspect; heart-felt; redemptive; exemplary; memorable; powerful; real; and most of all, healing. And because simple love was expressed on that ordinary bench on an unseasonably warm winter day, three lives were touched and I also suspect three souls soared. I know for a fact that mine did.

Bob Lively
livelybob@gmail.com

Bob Lively is on the adjunct faculty of Seton Cove Spirituality Center and is teacher- in- residence at first Presbyterian Church of Austin, where he teaches on Sunday mornings.

Each month on a random Saturday, you can read Bob's spiritual message on the Faiths and Beliefs page in the Life and Arts section of the Austin American Statesman.