He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) (NIV)
While still in the womb, a human baby develops brain cells at an astonishing rate. By the age of three, we reach the lifetime peak of one hundred billion cells with a quadrillion synapses exchanging information between them. A three-year-old’s head is a busy place. From age three onward the synapses begin to die, and it becomes a race to establish the necessary pathways of information flow with a diminishing number of resources.
My aging brain is an example of ever reducing assets, and yet, a smaller synapse count is offset by acquired wisdom, residing in the healthy connections. Youth has an excess of unformed brainpower, while old age has fewer but more effective mental resources. The bottom line, I must get life figured out before I can no longer noodle on it. Praise God, because he knew I’d be working with less and less, and so he made the answer to fit into my narrowing ability.
In the years my synapse paths were forming, I sampled the gamut, seeking life’s purpose. I researched comparative religions, dabbled in philosophy, and agonized over biblical interpretations. Now, I discover, I must go out much as I came in, with simplicity. I made finding my place confusing, God made it plain.
According to the passage above, we only need to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. That’s all there is to it.
So what exactly does he mean by act justly, I want to ask. But no, I don’t need to ask—I know perfectly well what he means. And do I love mercy as my most prized gift? Do I receive mercy from God and give it to others? And finally, do I humble my heart before the Almighty? Do I bow and repent, and simply walk with him?
Life is not some unsolvable mystery. Either I act justly, love Christ’s mercy, and squash my pride, or I don’t. Any child with undeveloped synapses can see whether I do or don’t.
Prayer: Gracious Father, thank you for the simplicity of salvation.