Willard's World 1 - The Simple Kingdom

The faith of the majority of educated people of our day was expressed by the word “progress.”
-Leo Tolstoy

My friends and I are constantly striving for progress. Those of us graduating college dream of moving from our parents basements to our very own condo. Those getting married dream of buying a home in the suburbs. Those getting promoted at work dream of the next car they’ll afford. More and better is our goal in the material sense.

I struggle to progress in an intellectual sense too. I want to get smarted, travel further and think deeper than before. These desires are encouraged by nearly everyone around me.

Dr. Willard though presents the idea that all the time we spend pursuing more and better is in some ways wasted. Life is simple. We are invited to make a pilgrimage into the heart and life of God and this life is accessible to a child perhaps even only those who are simple like children.

There’s and old U2 song that goes, “Into the heart of a child, I stay awhile. I can go back, into the heart of a child, I can smile, I can go there.” Maybe this is how we are to approach God. Maybe instead of trying to get into the head of God by reading philosophy we are to seek simply his heart and become so comfortable there we keep returning.

Willard goes on to explain that only once we are comfortable in Gods heart can we live in the Kingdom. This isn’t saying that outside of God’s heart I am unable of occasionally displaying the values of this Kingdom. Willard explains, “Our ‘kingdom’ is simply the range of our effective will. Whatever we genuinely have the say over is in our kingdom. And having the say over something is precisely what places it within our kingdom.” He goes on, “Now God’s own ‘kingdom’ or ‘rule,’ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.”

There are only two areas that are outside the range of God’s effective will: The social / political sphere and the individual heart. When we speak of God’s kingdom advancing it is areas of the social / political or individual heart aligning with the will of God. This is the gospel then; the outstanding news that God’s will is accessible to us. God’s plan requires us, as simple humans, to align our mini kingdoms with God’s. It’s simple but we need to know intimately this God we’re to align with.

I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom.
-Jesus (Matthew 18:2-4)