Phil Earnest

Why in the world do I find myself intrigued by adding things to my life to make it more busy?

MySpace for example. When it first came out was, at that time, great! It was new and interesting. Then it got so cluttered with stuff. Then everyone said forget this, we’re going to FaceBook. Then facebook got cluttered, and it’s been a back and forth process of simplifying, adding, taking away, adding new things, taking more stuff away, adding… Aaaaahhhhh!! Even my grandma was upset with all the changes to FB. YoYo

Let’s take a look at website development. At first, people want a website to be ‘clean’. Then as the site builds, more things are wanted (not needed). “Oh, I like what this site has, let’s add that to mine. And this to, gotta have this.”

Pretty soon, a website becomes an HTML buffet of laughing chickens gifs and glowing rollovers.

Personally, I can never be satisfied with a design for my own online media. Once I do it, I feel it’s outdated, then I do another, and the concerns are repeated. Pretty soon I just get frustrated at myself.

I go through phases of ‘I want to be simple’ but then I get lustful over the rotating banners and overloaded content on other websites and I find myself trying to plan a site like that for myself. It looks fun and busy. Why do I need this?

Lately, I’ve been more happy with a 15 second tweet or a mini blog post then I ever have in my days of hourly facebook/social network browsing.

Simple is good. Simple, really, is the best it can be. Dazzle is attractive sometimes, but it’s not really effective (when dealing with design and web layout)

We are all YoYo’s. We always go back and forth on what we want. Sometimes, it lasts for years.

This is where God really prompted me to write about this topic…

How do we know what simple is? We truly understand it when we have been through complication. In the pattern of online networks and innovative thinking, you see that through time, things got busy and complicated before ‘simple’ was marketed as cool.

Why is this? Because at first, we are excited about new and cool things. We get so used to doing multiple and complicated things at once and then, through time, we become exhausted. Tired and losing interest in keeping up with the trends. When things become easier, they become better. As people see that they can keep up with friends and family and it only takes a fraction of the time, people feel even better than they did with the complicated ways of doing things.

I was walking to my car one day after work when God showed me this way of thinking, that in order to know what is simple, you have to know what is complicating.

So many times my life is like this same social network analogy. God gave us a life, and simple is how it should be lived. Simple for the fact that we have barely any room aside from the calling that He has in our lives to share Christ to others. When I’ve allowed my life to be so busy, I’ve allowed God to slip away from the priority of my heart. I would never think or say that, but i showed that.

If you sit and write down everything you do in a day, do you do more relating to God, or more relating to this world? Relating to ourselves? Relating to the chaos of meaningless things?

I’m YoYo’ed out. I just want to stay in the simple.

It’s 2012, wow. I can’t believe how fast things fly by. I will say this, last year was one of the hardest/busiest/stressful years I think I’ve ever gone through in a lot of ways. We went through a foreclosure, moved to two different apartments, still learning how to be a dad, and many other obstacles.

I can smile though. With all the chaos in 2011, there were really good things that happened too. One of the biggest things was that we found out Col and I are having another baby! That is a good kind of stressfulness. It’s all exciting but then you’re running around trying to figure out how to support another life. Somehow, when I feel I haven’t done anything right and don’t know where else to go, God has always provided our needs. You would think by now as many things as He does to take care of us, we would get it. God loves his children, he loves to take care of us, so why do we worry? Why do we fear? Why do we pull our hair out?

Oooo ooo, I know! It’s because we’re tapping into the part of us that is still holding on to control! If I’m a flight attendant, why am I trying to steer the plane? I have a job to do, and like a flight attendant, I need to make sure that every part of this plane is trusting of the captain. Thats all I have to do. It’s not my job to figure out the things I’m unable to figure out. If science still can’t figure out space, then it’s ok that I can’t figure out a good way to get diaper smells out of the air the day after I take out the trash.

So, I know that the average human mind can’t keep attention to reading for more than like two minutes before interest begins to slide down the hill, so I’ll keep this short.

In chaos, as scripture says to be true, be still and know that He is God. I think there is great importance with ‘being still.’

I’m excited for 2012. I’m blessed to have the most incredible wife and baby ever and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for our family together, as we are seeking Him.

Happy 2012! God is with us

Phil Earnest

Apr 05

Mar 05

Jan 16

Jan 13

Jan 12

We are all YoYo’s

Jan 09

Chaos 2011