Faith Venture

Do you tend to complicate things? You think too much. Come up with too many ideas? Or perhaps you think about what you or someone else should do for a long time before you ever do it?

I do that sometimes. I’ll think about a project. Plan it in my head. Figure out all the tools I’ll need. Visualize how I’ll do every step. Think about problems I’ll encounter. Then it turns out to be a simple 15-minute project.

I also think too much about life sometimes. Albert Einstein (who seemed to be really complicated–ever try to read through the General Theory of Relativity?) once said something like “it should be as simple as possible, but not too simple.” It’s easy to make things complicated in our minds.

Acts 2 describes some powerful speaking that penetrated the hearts of those who heard it. The asked the disciples what they should do next. That’s a powerful question–in our lives we should always ask what the next step is. What is the next action we should take.

In Acts 2:37 Peter answers these new Christians with three next actions. Repent. Be baptized in the name of Jesus. Receive the Holy Spirit.

I like to play with words. So much so that almost 14 years ago I made a career change from an engineer working in manufacturing to a writer and editor of a magazine. So, I worry about words. Take “repent” for example. What do you think of when you hear that word? An old-time evangelist thundering from the stage trying to frighten people into submission? The caricature of a man with a long beard and long robe carrying a sign reading Repent?

It’s actually a simple word with a simple meaning. Important, but simple. What Peter was saying was that you used to live in a certain way. Now you recognize that that way of life leads to spiritual wasteland. So you decide to change the way you live. That’s all. You used to live one way, now you live another. Easily said. Hard to practice. Right?

Now if you make that decision to change the way you live your life, you will make a public commitment to join a community of people also trying to live that life. You are baptized in a public celebration of your decision.

Then you will receive the Holy Spirit. In other words, God enters you (remember how we make God complicated by trying to explain that the one God has three forms–Father, Son, Spirit–and then think we have three Gods). Anyway, God enters you and you now live a new life in relationship with this God that you have found.

What should we do next?

This entry was posted on October 4, 2011 at 6:59 am and is filed under Christianity, Faith, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.