Living Simply in a Complicated World

May 12, 2025

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 
~ 1 John 4:11 NIV ~

We switched phone providers recently and we were given a new phone number. Only it wasn’t so new. Since the day we got it we have been getting three times as many robot calls here, all seeking to sell us something. It is quite annoying. Plus it seems like every time I dare buy something online my email inbox is suddenly flooded with ads trying to get me to buy more. In addition to this I have grown frustrated with the deluge of stuff on my social media trying to brainwash me to believe a certain way. It is like they think if they say it enough I will believe it, no matter how false it is.

There is also the infinitely complex maze of rules and regulations that I am always having to navigate just to make sure that I can continue to provide and care for my two intellectually disabled sons. It seems like each rule change makes things harder and more complicated when they should be designed to help people instead. It is sometimes enough to make me want to pull out what little hair I have left.

Henry David Thoreau once said: “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” What good old Henry didn’t know then is that the modern world tends to fight back. Every time you seek to simplify, this world tries in so many ways to draw you back into its web of work, work, work; buy, buy, buy; spend, spend, spend; and watch, watch, watch.

That is why each day I turn off my computer and phone and take some quiet time to pray and reconnect with God. And when I do I remember these simple truths: “God loves us all so much. God wants us to love each other as He loves us. And when we do we will have joy, help others, and make the world a better place.” What could be simpler than that? May you all live simply in this complicated world. May you all live in God’s Love, forever.

 "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:11-12 NIV)

Joseph J. Mazzella

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