I was sitting on the porch, taking a break from work, and my busy thoughts and soaking in the morning sun. My thoughts were well over their normal speed limit, as I tried to figure out what I was going to do throughout the year. My mind was totally busy with thoughts of things I wanted to accomplish, what I think I need, what I don’t have, and what I haven’t been able to do. In a way, I was kinda overwhelmed. As I sat—well actually laying at this point— I heard a constant buzzing noise. I listened and realized the buzzing noise was coming from the wind chimes above me. Apparently a mud wasp built a nest in one again, which happens each year.

This dirt-filled chime actually sounded good compared to the flat-noted drum sound that it typically makes when there is a wasp nest inside of it. It sounded more like a synth note on a keyboard, actually in tune with the rest of the chimes. As the wind blew, the chimes would ring out this beautiful simple melody—you know how wind chimes work.

That’s when it hit me. It had been windy all week long, and this was the first time I actually heard them. I had been on the porch multiple times during the week–and I know it was windy– and hadn’t heard them at all. It took that buzzing noise to finally hear them. I was so caught up in being busy I made no time for the simple melody to sing to me. I realized I had allowed the complexity of life to steal the peace of simplicity.

How often are we on the go that we don’t even see the beauty in front of us? How often do we run after things in this life, whether dreams or material possessions, finances, or relationships that we totally miss the beauty God has placed in the present. Do you hear the wind chimes? Or is it just some noise in the past that the business of life has caused you to tune it out? The more I think about many of my pursuits, the more I realize I don’t need but one—Christ! Sure some of my goals and dreams are worth working for, but if it’s causing me to allow the simplicity of life to slip away, then I am missing the point. 

“This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” -Ecclesiastes 7:29

Our lives were made to simply spend time with God. If we aren’t doing that, we are throwing our lives away. The life God has given us is beautiful! The people God has placed in our lives are priceless. God made us simple, and we should live in that way constantly praising God for all He has done and all He has given! Praise Him for just being alive! Praise Him for all the amazing things He has done! Praise Him that with Him as the Guide, we have nothing to ever worry about! Now listen, do you hear the wind chimes? The melody is Peace!

“ The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.” -Psalm 116:6

Sorry God for not being simple and simply Praise You all the day long!