One-hit wonders.

One-note people.

Society looks down on artists and people who hit the same note, who sing the same refrain over and over again. Repetition is undesirable in the face of variety and novelty. Simplicity and clarity is overlooked in favor of awe-inspiring complexity.

I can’t help but think that all the noise and dazzling display of intricately woven schemes and ever-more-preposterous displays is designed to hide the emptiness at the core.

I can’t help but wonder if we, believers in Jesus Christ, followers of The Way, have traded the beautiful, weighty simplicity that He offers for something more dazzling yet vacuous.

Jesus boiled whole books of law and prophecy down to two commands: Love the Lord your God and Love your neighbor.

Jesus welcomed the simple, earnest, joyful faith of children.

Jesus healed sick people and fed hungry people.

Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m with you.”

Every story. Every parable. Every account of where He walked and what He said. The same refrains over and over.

In the same way, the disciple and apostle Peter, when writing his 2^nd letter, said in verse 12: “I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder…and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

So, maybe…

When we find ourselves recounting the same truths that have dug deep into us…

When we recognize repeated themes in our lives of what God is saying…

We would do well to embrace them rather than despise them.

Knowing that Jesus kept it simple and repeated Himself. His disciples kept it simple and repeated themselves.

If we’re simple, clear, and continue to repeat refrains of Truth, we stand in good company.

There is a good restlessness: a desire to get on with what you’re supposed to be doing. There is also a destructive restlessness: a discontent that looks around and sees all the things you want to change, all the resources that you think others have that you lack, all the tools you need “before I can do that thing I’m supposed to do.”

That second kind of restlessness is the one that the enemy of our souls continually invites us to. He offers us thoughts to feed our insecurities, building our small view of ourselves into a mountain that must be moved before we can move forward.

We stand there and contemplate that immovable obstacle. We enlist strategists to come up with the most effective mountain-removal schemes. We investigate alternate routes around the mountain.

We keep trying to work with our own understanding. It keeps us standing there.

The entire time, the God Who set us on this path in the first place is asking us to look at what we have in our hands; to discover the tiny little grain of faith that He has gifted us there. Gently, He encourages us to hold that little seed in front of our eyes, not comparing its diminutive size to the immensity before us, but rather to recognize that it is the gift He has given us to work with.

Will we choose to trust His gift’s sufficiency and walk forward in faith or will we continue to demand to stand still until we wrap our understanding around the best way forward?

It’s a choice that we must make a thousand times a day. My understanding or His gift? Which one will I call trustworthy?

Scripture tells us that even the tiniest bit of faith – gifted by God and TRUSTED by us – can remove mountains. We are promised that the God who sets us on a path will make that path straight before us AS WE WALK IT.

Maybe it’s time that we quit demanding that we understand, abandon the wisdom of our own thoughts and perceptions, and test God to see if He is telling us the truth. If we just obey Him, act as though grains of faith are mountain-busters, and take a step forward on what appears to be a blocked path… would we see the cracks and crevices appear in that solid mass? Would our faith, demonstrated by our action, bring about the clearing in front of us that no amount of reasoning will accomplish?

If the Bible is to be considered a reliable source, we must assume that is exactly what would happen. The testimonies are plentiful of God taking what his faithful ones thought was insufficient and showing them that when He was in it, it was exceedingly and abundantly more than enough.

So. What’s the step you’ll take in obedience and trust today? Do you even have a tiny glimmer of the testimony that taking it will bring? Is there a spark of curiosity, adventure, and expectation in you that will spur you to just go ahead and do it?

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do with my dad was fishing. It helped that we frequently went to my favorite library in the same trip (I’m a born bookworm – slash – mermaid, so a library that sits on the banks of a river? No better place on earth.)

The area of town that we lived in was called Eau Gallie – “Rocky Water.” Our river’s edge was piled with jagged rocks that I loved to use as steppingstones, precariously balancing and occasionally “accidentally” winding up in the water.

One memorable day, Dad and I, along with my mom and brother, went out along the riverside to fish. I was maybe six or seven years old; young enough that I needed help baiting my hook but old enough to be left holding the fishing pole independently.

There I sat, only half expecting anything to take the bait. My joy was in sitting at the water’s edge, listening to the swoosh