When Dr. Carl Barth, the great Swiss theologian, came to the United States, he met with some theological students. They asked him this question: “Dr. Barth, in your lifetime you have read and studied as deeply into theology as any man who has ever lived. Could you summarize for us in just a few sentences what you believe to be the essence of Christianity?” And those students waited anxiously for some profound theological truth to come from his lips. The old man said to them, “Yes, I think I can summarize the essence of Christianity in just a few words. It is this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The wiser we become, the more we simplify life. Life is enriched not by complicating it, not by cluttering it, but by simplifying it. Even in our faith and our relationship to the Lord, the more we can simplify, the better life becomes.
