Complexity of Environment
The complexity of our lives is not due to our environment, but rather to our own human nature and desires.
Thomas Kelly challenges the notion that the complexity of our lives is solely due to our environment, highlighting that even in simpler settings, we can still struggle with busyness and distractions. He shares his experience of trying to find simplicity in the tropics but realizing that the same hectic pace followed him there. Kelly emphasizes that true simplification of life does not come from external changes but from a transformation within ourselves, where we prioritize what is truly needful over the many distractions that vie for our attention.
Text
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful..."
(Luke 10:41-42).
Let me first suggest that we are giving a false explanation of the complexity of our lives. We blame it upon the complex environment. Our complex living, we say, is due to the complex world we live in, with its radios and autos, which give us more stimulation per square hour than used to be given per square day to our grandmothers. This explanation by the outward order leads us to turn wistfully, in some moments, to thoughts of a quiet South Sea Island existence, or to the horse and buggy days of our great grandparents, who went, jingle bells jingle bells, over the crisp and ringing snow to spend the day with their grandparents on the farm. Let me assure you, I have tried the life of the South Seas for a year, the long, lingering leisure of a tropic world. And I found that Americans carry into the tropics their same madcap, feverish life which we know on the mainland. Complexity of our program cannot be blamed upon complexity of our environment, much as we should like to think so. Nor will simplification of life follow simplification of environment. I must confess that I chafed terribly, that year in Hawaii, because in some respects the environment seemed too simple.
Sermon Outline
- The False Explanation of Complexity
- The Reality of Complexity
- The Limitations of Simplification
- Simplifying environment does not simplify life
- The human desire for complexity cannot be easily changed
Key Quotes
“But one thing is needful...” — Thomas Kelly
Application Points
- We must recognize that our complex lives are a result of our own choices and desires, rather than external circumstances.
- Simplifying our environment may not necessarily simplify our lives, as our human nature and desires drive our behavior.
- We must take responsibility for our own lives and choices, rather than blaming external factors for our complexity.