Simplified

Cam Newton was the first overall draft pick for the Carolina Panthers, following an incredible college season where he won the Heisman Trophy and the National Championship at Auburn. He came into the NFL with high hopes that he could turn the Panthers into Super Bowl contenders. It didn’t happen overnight, and Newton had a few up and down seasons where he shined and struggled. One of the issues that prevented him from thriving was the complexity of the terminology for play calls being used by the offensive coaches. However, once new offensive coordinator Mike Shula came in and simplified the verbiage, Cam was able to call the plays quicker and speed up the tempo of the offense. Football is considered a complex game with many nuances, but sometimes people overcomplicate it too much. I think many times we can have similar feelings about the Bible and following Jesus. The Bible is complex with its many commandments and degree of depth, but thankfully Jesus simplified things for us. In Mark 12:30-31 (we looked at this earlier in the week), Jesus is asked which commandment is the most important of all. He responds by saying, ‘...you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Cam Newton has flourished since his role as QB was simplified. Today, let’s not complicate what it looks like to follow Jesus. Although challenging, if we simply love God and love people, everything else will flow from that…and our pursuit of following Jesus will flourish. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!