Kids.

Deliver me, O Jesus,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the desire of being popular,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being suspected.

(Well, I should just go ahead and pray that every day).

Mother Teresa wrote that. I'm reading her book, A Simple Path, and it is... simplifying. Everything.

This past semester in my sociology class, we got the opportunity to talk on a conference call with Rodney Stark, a pretty well-known rational choice theorist and sociologist of religion (we soc majors all geeked out). He wrote our textbook. Whatever, anyway, he was talking about a new book that he's writing. We asked if it was going to be a more technical/academic read, or if just anyone could pick it up and read and understand it. He said, anyone can read it. If I just write in a bunch of sociological jargon, it's worthless. If I am unable to simplify it into common language, then that means I don't understand it.

One of the student speakers at chapel this year started his talk by mentioning a long string of names of authors, philosophers, and theologians that he was well-versed in. Then, be basically ended up saying, sometimes, we're so smart that we're stupid. Maybe the most comforting thing in the world to me, even if it's a little cliche, is that if God were small enough to understand, he would not be big enough to worship.

Sometimes I hide under this comfortable outer shell that I've created of a responsible, level-headed, "serious," reserved woman. I guess that makes it easier to pretend like I know anything about anything. HA!

Sometimes I pretend that I was never a kid, slash have a hard time understanding and relating to kids. What are they?? What I'm learning: They are perfect.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matt 18:3


It blows my mind how we seem to try so hard to "un-simplify" things to make ourselves feel smarter, while really what we should be after is faith like a child.