Teaching | Simplicity of Heart | Simplicity E02
Practicing the Way with John Mark Comer
Practicing the Way
4.9 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Simplicity is about choosing a deep life over a simple one, a life of focus rather than a life of distraction. John Mark talks about how we need to simplify around something, and how our heart and values are essential for this practice. He reminds us that, as followers of Jesus, we are called to make Him the center of our lives, in the various ways that plays out for each of us.
Key Scripture Passages: Luke 12v22-31
Resources for this practice:
https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/simplicity
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the John Mark Comer |
| 0:03.0 | teachings podcast by practicing the way. |
| 0:05.0 | This teaching was originally given at |
| 0:08.6 | Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon |
| 0:10.7 | as a part of the simplicity practice. |
| 0:13.0 | Please turn in your Bibles right now to Luke Chapter 12 and give me a few minutes to set up our text. |
| 0:28.0 | Life is complex and not to sound cynical, but anyone who tells you otherwise is likely trying to sell you something. |
| 0:36.0 | The human brain was hardwired by God at a neurobiological level to synthesize vast amounts of electrical impulses and |
| 0:45.3 | simplify it all down to a focal point. Now some of us are better at this than |
| 0:50.5 | others. Monks are the best. Ninja level but after the monks at this |
| 0:54.1 | others, monks are the best, Ninja level, but after the monks, |
| 0:55.0 | the people I know who best optimize |
| 0:57.2 | this latent human capacity are advertisers. |
| 1:00.7 | Years ago, I got to sit in on a branding meeting with some high-level ad agency execs and watch them |
| 1:06.3 | coax the leaders of an organization to articulate in one line what their organization was all about and in all honesty it was pure genius and |
| 1:16.4 | branding is a great strategy if you run a business and your goal is to sell a |
| 1:20.7 | product or a service it's. But I am not a brand and neither are you. We are |
| 1:27.7 | human beings and human nature is complex and it's full of paradox and ambiguity and tension and open-ended questions. |
| 1:38.0 | So it would be really easy to mistake the practice of simplicity as just another Western |
| 1:45.2 | a capitalistic attempt to truncate the mystery of the human condition |
| 1:49.7 | but it's not. The opposite of simplicity isn't complexity, it's superficiality. |
| 1:56.9 | It's a life that is trivial, vain, ephemeral. |
... |
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