Secret of the Universe in 3 E-Z Steps

Bill Brown ... .Xiamen University
Life in 3 Easy Lessons?

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 各样美善的恩赐，和各样全备的赏赐，都是从上头来的。从众光之父那里降下来的。在他并没有改变，也没有转动的影儿。雅各书1:17

Life is a class, the earth is our classroom, and we are here to learn and grow--but as the days, years and decades fly by, it is easy to forget just what we are here to learn--and that the Final Exam is fast approaching.

Life in 3 Easy Steps Although our cultures, languages, and individual lives and experiences are endlessly diverse, we are all learning the same lessons. Unfortunately, many who would be our earthly "teachers" have complicated the course beyond all recognition. It reminds me of my wife's book, "Flatten Your Belly in 3 Easy Steps." The author spent over 300 pages describing those 3 easy steps. And I have a book that, right on the front cover, promises to teach me piano "in no time at all." Yet I had to read 180 pages of history and technical details before I even reached the page that said, "And now, we will learn to play a song on piano."

Likewise, many claim to have the E-Z Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but they couch that E-Z answer in endlessly verbose volumes of philosophy, religion and science. Even as a child, I read volumes on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, and Islam. How often I wished I could find a simple summary of what it was all about, but usually I just found myself even more confused. Even the very name of God was puzzling.

Laozi, founder of Taoism, said, "The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. Having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth." [道德经:道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。无名天地之始.]

The "I Am" Moses actually asked God his name. God's answer would not have surprised Taoists. God gave no name! He simply said, "I am that I am." Exocus 3:14 ["我是自有永有的。"出埃及记3:14], and told Moses to tell the Jews, "I AM has sent me." But those two words, "I am," summarized all that the ancient philosophers could learn about the eternal, unchanging, and unknowable principle. That, of course, did not stop the Taoists, Buddhists, Jews and everyone else from writing endlessly about God. Much more can be written about the unknown than about the known and verifiable.

Back to Basics. It is interesting that Jesus reserved his strongest words (and anger) not for the cruel Roman occupiers, or even the sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors, but for the so-called spiritual leaders who complicated God all out of recognition and laid heavy religious burdens upon people. Jesus said God is unchanging Light, and Love. And most importantly, Jesus said that God not only can be known but wants to be known because we are his children.

Perhaps Jesus made things too simple, because for 2,000 years we've been trying to complicate it, but for Jesus, life boils down to 3 E-Z steps.

The Secret of the Universe in 3 E-Z Steps
1. Know the "I am." Lin Yutang said finite minds cannot grasp the infinite, but that is okay because we don't have to understand God to know and love him, even as a baby can love and trust its father without understanding him.

2. Love God. The Bible says "God is love," and He wants our love not for his sake but our own, because we cannot receive love unless we ourselves learn to love. [There is a paradox here, for it is also true that we cannot love unless we have been loved; love must grow]. And how do we love God? Not through religion and rites and sacrifice but through obedience, and step 3:

3. "Love Others." God wants us to love Him, and love others as ourselves. This, of course, assumes that we love ourselves too (not because of what we are, but because of Whose we are).

Great Works, Small Mind I still reread the great religious and philosophical works because each offers interesting insights, but they can be bewild.ering. So as I am tossed daily on the seas of a very busy and often perplexing life, my compass is simply Jesus' 3 E-Z Steps: Know God, Love God, Love Others as Myself.

Not that I live up to any of those, but it is a start. And that is all that this life is anyways--a start.
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