This week I wanted to share about something I think is very, very important… KISSing.
When I first said this on Sunday morning from the pulpit, I witnessed a new shade of red on Lindsay’s face. Especially with her parents there, I enjoyed a brief moment of joy at her expense (sorry about that, dear!).

I quickly made sure everyone knew that I was not talking about this type of kissing:

although we are pretty adorable… that isn’t what I was talking about.

This week I want to talk about the letters, K-I-S-S, which I have learned can stand for Keep It Simple Silly.”

This weeks passage came from Matthew 13:31-33. In these two short parables, we hear about how God can take a simple faith, the size of a mustard seed, and grow it into a life-giving tree. Jesus used the example of a mustard seed and a little yeast to explain how grand he can make something that starts out so simple, so small.

On Sunday, I shared how my tennis coach in college helped to transform my not great tennis game into a little less bad. When I got to college, I was losing to most of the other people on the team, because I was trying to hit the ball so hard and be what I thought a college tennis player was. My coach finally yelled at me one day when I continued to hit the back of the fence over and over with my overly complicated shots. He pulled me to the back and he said, “OK Cole. You are not allowed to try to swing harder that 70-80% the rest of the year. If I see you swinging 110% like what you are doing right now, you are not going to like what happens.”

This goes against everything I was taught. Most of us are taught, give 200% and go as hard as you can and get bigger, hit faster, etc. My coach just told me I wasn’t allowed to do what I had been taught was how you win. You see, my coach understood, one, that I wasn’t as good as the professionals I saw on TV and two, that simple can be better many times. Because of my change in approach in only hitting the ball 70-80%, I started winning a lot more matches and starting beating a lot more of my teammates. I still wasn’t the best out there, but I kept it simple silly and things started to get better.

I think Jesus in these parables may be telling us the same thing, we need to be better kissers, we are supposed to keep things simple, silly. We are supposed to have a simple faith that is based in our love for him and love for others. God can take the faith of a small mustard seed and turn it into a huge plant. The mustard seed that starts at about 1/8^th of an inch and grows to 10 feet… that is 80 times larger than what it started. If we remember from our first parable a few weeks ago about the seed that was sown on good soil, Jesus said it had 100 fold from what it started with.

All throughout these parables in Matthew 13, Jesus is calling us to a simple faith in Him, a simple trust in Him, a simple love for Him. With this simple faith, he promises production beyond our wildest imaginations.

My challenge to us all this week is to be a good kisser, keep it simple, silly. No matter what comes up in life, no matter who is around, no matter whether you are in a valley or on a hilltop, trust that God is in control and He is faithful to take care of us. I hope that is as comforting to you all as it is to me. Hallelujah, He is in control!! We have our simple faith of loving Him and loving others.