Today's Thought - All or Nothing?

Life is complicated. We prefer simple, easy answers. And there lies the rub. For decades people have been explaining the growth of fundamentalism as a desire for people to find simple answers to difficult questions because - let's be honest - working through things can be tiring. "Just tell me what the Bible says about it!" Okay, but first you have to understand that the original biblical languages didn't have punctuation, with the exception of little marks that tells us how to pronounce some words. I can see people's eyes rolling back and tongues lolling out - JUST TELL ME WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT IT! Okay - but you know that there are two stories of Creation in Genesis that are completely different, and the reason is ... you see the problem, right? Almost everything is complicated, so we resort to saying "Ockham's Razor" or "it is what it is" or "God is in control." Thinking things through and changing our minds is hard work, so we seek alternatives.

I wish there were never any need for abortion, but what do you do if your 13-year-old is attacked and impregnated by a rapist? I don't like war, but what do you do when a tyrant - say, Putin - attacks a country - say, Ukraine? I am angry and frustrated by the carnage in Gaza, but what should Israel do - let Iran destroy them all? We can point fingers and say someone started it in _____, but history isn't simple, and lines have been drawn by every conqueror and nation over and over again. It's complicated. We were all taught that there are only two genders, but scientific discovery says otherwise. What does the person seeking simplicity do? You either accept the complications, or you shut down the science and ignore it.?

You might want God to be simple to understand - good luck with that! You might want an answer that doesn't make your head hurt about - you name it - but that is probably not an option. Simple can be good, but simplistic is steeped in denial. Life is nuanced. Sometimes, there are only bad, worse, or terrible options - like presidential elections - and the good choice is a fantasy. Very little in life is all or nothing, and to live as if it is only leads to living in denial. I know that life can be exhausting, and complications wear us out, but to take the easy route is boring and rarely satisfying. The universe is an amazing, complicated place. This world - each life - is filled with intricacies that we are still discovering. Don't let the search for simple take you away from the discovery of beauty. Because it isn't the devil who is in the details - it's God!

Prayer - Merciful God, give us the strength to find You in every detail and discovery, so that we don't miss out on all the beauty You have created. Amen.

Today's art is The Long View?(2013): The true—and vast—complexity of the universe was captured in this vista recorded by a pair of automated telescopes, one in the U.S. and one in the Chilean desert. From our little perch inside the Milky Way, the image shows the universe stretching out for about a billion light years, which is only a small fraction of its total size. Each of the 50,000 dots represents an entire galaxy. Go to this website to see other images - they are too big to upload here! Spectacular Photos of Space: See Our View of the Universe

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