K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

I just love the simple eloquence of God. . . and that he can speak through something as nasty as a head cold as easily as through the majestic symbolism of an eagle!

As I have been recovering from this head cold of mine I've reflected on the two basic options in overcoming such a thing. One is the pharmaceutical route, where you take one or more drugs to alleviate the symptoms until the body somehow does the real work of throwing off whatever you're fighting. The other route, which in my mind is the much preferred route, is to work with your body's natural functions and give it all the help you can. This more "natural" approach may not appear as neat and tidy as the pharmaceutical way, but in the end it actually is neater and tidier. The drug route tends to work against your body's natural functions (hence all the "side effects"), and if the science of psychology tells me anything, I would think that suppressing a symptom rather than getting to the root cause of it is not a good thing. The natural way involves a little more work in that one has to become informed on how bodily functions work and how one can help them work well. But once that basic knowledge is achieved, getting and staying healthy actually becomes a lot more simpler. A lifestyle can be developed whereby health, more often than not, will be the rule and very little time, money and effort is wasted on drugs and doctor bills.

Righteousness - living by the tree of life - is the simplest way to live. You simply do what is right. It's not easy, but it is simple. Jesus is that tree of life. We must live as he lived. "I do only what I see my Father doing" is the way he summed it up. Implicit in that simple statement are two things: knowing what God has authoritatively done and said (Scripture), and becoming increasingly aware of His ongoing still, small voice. This is the most "natural" way to live, as represented by the tree of life. The way of living based on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil tries to micromanage everything - pushing the right button here, following the right principle there; taking the right pill here, following the latest fad there. It might work fine for a while ("there is a way that seems right to a man..."), but sooner or later the "side effects" begin to kick in ("but the end thereof is the way of death'').

I don't enjoy having to endure the symptoms of my cold. But I have learned to become aware of and appreciate the process by which my body is cleansing itself of an infection. In the end I can actually know and feel that I am healthier. The nasty cold bacteria can become a tool of God to alert me to areas where I had let up in my healthy lifestyle; and when that is corrected, true health (not a drug cover-up) becomes the result. When we do things God's way, in accordance with nature as He created it, life really does become simplified. Not easier, but definitely more simple.

A final note: I know there are some whose lives would be incredibly more painful if not altogether threatened if it weren't for drugs. What I have said is not intended to depreciate the value of such drugs. They have their place until a truer way to healing is revealed.


"I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3)