Simpler | Dawson Cowals

Disclaimer: So… this is perhaps a slightly off-kilter late night rambling about life, love, hope, faith and salvation. It may land a bit far of the bizarre line for some, but perhaps others will dig deeper and hear the truth and heart where it was coming from. Comments and feedback are welcome.

My friend once asked if life on earth could be simpler.

But that would make it far too easy and then we would lose any whiff of the smallest trace particle of motivation that we are barely a smidgen of the thickness of a bee’s wings away from losing already! Challenge is what drives us to do better, to reach farther, to dare to love, hope, dream & succeed. Take that away, and what’s the point?

Then all that is left is desolation, depression, and a severe vitamin D deficiency brought on by endless days of darkness without a ray of hope or light. It is that striving toward the light, to bask in it’s warmth, to run the race and attain the prize that makes us get back up and dust off our knees after we’ve tripped headlong attempting a hurdle that was chin high on a giraffe.

None of us can truly make it through some of these trials we face alone that can make Unobtainium look as obtainable and easy to reach as those last twenty pounds we think we need to lose before others, including ourselves, will accept us as having worth and value. So why do we kick and scream like a child who would rather run out into rush hour traffic on the 580 hoping to be hit by a car than face the truth that we need to go to the Dentist and get the rotting cavity-filled tooth of our sin pulled?

Sure it might hurt a little to have the tooth pulled, to die to our old selves and bury those previous impulses that we are still so ready and tempted to pick back up again that we need to up shovel and mound the dirt high daily. But we are not alone and fortunately do not have to make it on our own steam; which frankly is so weak and pathetic that it makes lukewarm tea look powerful enough to drive a train across country.

And that is the Good News with a capital G. N. that we aren’t alone, that we don’t have to make it on our own or somehow foot the bill for that crazy visit to the Dentist that we could never possibly pay in 4 lifetimes! He’s already paid the bill for us and now we have life insurance that stretches beyond death into eternity!

I for one am glad that there is nothing that I have to do to qualify for this amazing life insurance policy since there is truly nothing that I can do of my own strength, effort, good deeds or striving to somehow be good enough to measure up to the standard of holiness and perfection that would be required if I had to apply on my own without a co-signer who already meets and exceeds the criteria and has chosen for some reason to graciously offer surety in my stead!

All I have to do is humble my stupid pride that is wound tightly around my neck like a noose, admit that I am desperately in need of a benefactor, and accept the free gift that has been offered. So why do we still dig in our heels and cling to the last tuft and blade of grass at the lip of the cliff before plummeting to our deaths rather than take the hand that is reaching down to save us?

It couldn’t be any simpler; there are no 36 pages of forms in triplicate that we need to sign and have notarized; no magic words, foolish wand waving or silly incantations; no other lender we could choose which would cancel the debt and offer surety in our place. All that we have to do is acknowledge our debt which is piled high like some proverbial pink elephant in the room; allow him to co-sign for us and take over responsibility for it, and then shout aloud that we are free indeed.

Frankly, I can’t see how life on earth could get any simpler.