The simple truth

Pinned above my desk are these words:
 
“To be simple is to fix one’s eye solely on the simple truth of God at a time when all concepts are being confused, distorted and turned upside down.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” – Matthew 6:22 (KJV)
 
Today, in our troubled times, I find these words both a comfort and a challenge. Bonhoeffer was writing in Nazi Germany more than 80 years ago. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew laid down his words close to 2,000 years ago. Yet, the message is as true today as across the millennia. Simplicity comes from faithfulness to the Light Within.
 
It was the testimony of simplicity that most spoke to me when I first came to Quakerism. With two small children, living on a tight budget in a crumbling Victorian heap, my life was anything but simple. Both internally and externally I lived in chaos. The simple life beckoned but remained elusive. I got rid of possessions, winnowed down my wardrobe, shopped in bulk, attempted to impose some sort of discipline on family life, and longed to live in a tiny house that wasn’t such a drain on my energy and our resources. At some future date, I promised myself, I would achieve simplicity.
 
Fast forward 25 years. My children have left the nest, I am retired, and the crumbling heap is no longer my problem. My husband and I live in a little house with few needs. I have “achieved” my goal: in the world’s terms, my life is simple. So why doesn’t it feel that way?
 
Each morning, I wake up to news of death and destruction around the world. I am exposed to hate-filled speech across the political spectrum. Neighbors subscribe to completely different “truths.” I struggle to withstand psychological manipulation at every turn. I witness with horror the rising tide of violence and desperation. No amount of frantically responding to multiple calls to service can quell an overriding sense of helplessness in the face of approaching apocalypse.
 
In his day, Bonhoeffer faced all of this and more. But he kept his eye and mind on the simple truth of God all the way to his execution at the hands of the Nazis. We will probably not have to pay such a high price for faithfulness, but that path of inward simplicity, of singleness of eye, is available to us if we will but take it. In true simplicity, we enter the deep silences of the heart. Here’s how the Quaker Thomas R. Kelly put it:
 
“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts news shadows and new glories upon the face of men. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it.”