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This Psalm in the Bible describes simplicity…
Surely, I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me (Psalm 131:2, NASB).
Let me share two recent stories.
First, I heard a seminary professor say many of his students were reading John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthier and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World. And while humorously commenting that for a book on simplicity it has a complex title, let me share a second story. Two younger guys I’m discipling both mentioned in a recent session that their current favorite song is “Center” by Bethel Music.
The song opens with these lyrics…
Maybe we’ve made this complicated. More than it was ever meant to be. Hasn’t it always been about the same thing? O Lord, bring us back to the simple things. You be the center of it all!
It seems like Comer and Bethel have joined together in a conspiracy to help us slow down, pace our lives according to God’s will, and live in joy without anxiety. And everyone reading this blog post should praise God!
While John Mark Comer and Bethel Music operate in different mediums—one in literature and the other in music—both respond to the same cultural crisis: a digital world consumed by the inane, frantic, and complicated. Comer and the song Center identify the greatest threat to modern faith not as outright atheism, but as the sheer complexity and noise of modern life.
The Shared Solution: The “Mary vs. Martha” Choice
The bridge of Center describes the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10…
Just to sit here at Your feet. Just to fall in love again. Just to sit here at Your feet. Just like Mary chose the better thing.
This concept of “choosing the better thing” by slowing down to sit at the feet of Jesus is the corner-post of Comer’s entire spiritual theology. Comer heavily promotes ancient spiritual disciplines—silence, solitude, Sabbath, and slowing down—as a direct rebellion against a hyper-stimulated culture. The song Center distills Comer’s book-length arguments for contemplative slowness into a five-minute song. It has become a favorite anthem for the two guys I disciple, and many others. Now I have to ask them if they’ve read any of John Mark Comer’s books!
The Discipline of Simplicity
Considering John Mark Comer and Bethel’s focus, let’s include Richard Foster and his book Celebration of Discipline (written decades ago). In his chapter on “The Discipline of Simplicity,” Foster writes…
The Christian discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle… because we lack a divine center, our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things… The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first, and then everything necessary will come in its proper order.
Richard Foster provides a solid theological undergirding for Comer and Center. As the Book of Ecclesiastes reads:
See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought many schemes (7:29).
Comer says to eliminate “hurry,” Bethel’s music encourages us to stay “centered,” and Foster teaches us to find the “divine center.” It is all Biblical, and it is all deeply needed.