Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. What a profound speech that was! Apropos, Gary Wills wrote a book, "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America."
The Gettysburg address has only 272 words. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach us to pray, He gave us the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer translated into English has several versions, but the most common version has only 70 words. In our complicated and confusing times, those 70 words give guidance and offer profound impact.
It's the same with commandments. Ancient rabbis identified 613 commandments in the Bible which they ultimately boiled down to three: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).
Lincoln's brevity reminds us that living comes down to simple truths but oh, how we paralyze ourselves by constant analysis! How often do we disobey because we philosophize over this or that? A life is not enough to understand the simple truths that God teaches us for living.
Amen to that!
I know I can also paralyze myself with constant distractions from news sites, Facebook, etc.
Often losing sight of the simple truths that you so often bring back into focus.
Posted by: Jeff | 11/22/2013 at 11:27 PM