Simplify

I know it's been far too long since I've written, sometimes I just run out of valuable things to say. Still, that's not always bad. More words are not always better. I was reminded of this fact this morning.

I was teaching NexGen (our middle school Sunday school/church) and we were talking about "How good is good enough?" I started to explain the concept using scales where we "weighed" items representing good things or bad things we could do in our lives. There was significant debate about whether it was worse to "hit your little brother" or "steal a cookie from the lunch room."

Then once the "good" and "bad" things were ordered by how bad they really were, I asked them how do you balance the bad things and the good things. One kid suggested you should do the bad things first, then the good things, so the bad things will be forgotten along the way. Seems rational right?

Then I picked up the object that represented the stolen cookie in the lunch room, and I walked over to our things representing our good deeds. I told them that even if they did all of these good things (telling the truth, working at a homeless shelter, etc.) 7 times over, it would not make up for the stolen cookie. No amount of good deeds could tip the scales away from what we've done wrong.

And that's how I explained sin. They seemed to get it.

But then I tried to explain salvation. I talked about passover and blood sacrifice and God's perfect righteousness. Their eyes started to glaze. I had overcomplicated things.

Tonight at Fuse, James mentioned one verse.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved
~Romans 10:9

I was so mad at myself! It's so simple. I tried to use this complicated logic about salvation, when one verse explains it. This is the nature of salvation. It's so simple and I made it complicated.

More words are not always better, sometimes it's best to simplify.