Yes, I made up the word “minimalicity”.  We’ll just chalk it up as the writers prerogative.

But you probably already have an idea what I’m going to say.  I’ll say it anyway.

MINIMALICITY is the condition where one tries to get by just doing the minimal amount of work possible.

My daughters are in college and have developed a finely tuned nose for sniffing out minimaicitists (yes, I’m compounding the language issue here).  Schools love to assign the dreaded “group project”.  And if you get a minimicitist on your project team, you’re in for a rough time and a bad grade.

* They might show up for meetings, but they rarely participate.

* They never share ideas with the team.   Possibly because they don’t do enough to find anything worth sharing.

* When they contribute to the final paper, they never hit their word count, so someone else has to make up the difference to satisfy the professor.

* None of their graphs or figures are properly labeled – so someone else has to do a guessing job because….

* They don’t respond to texts or emails asking questions about the project.

* They don’t share their sources, so the bibliography ends up short a bunch of references (which profs just hate).

Minimalicity is a real danger for a college student.  It’s important to pick good project teams (if the professor lets you do this) so that you can cut them out.

But what about spiritual minimaicitists?  Is that also a thing?

Unfortunately it is. 

If you find yourself starting lots of good ideas, but not finishing them, that’s an early warning sign.  

The part that trips up even me (yes, I fight with this condition too) is reading enough to think “Oh, I think I understand it now!” then stopping.  Never mind all the good work that is ahead of me.  I tell myself that I “know enough to get by”. 

I don’t.  That line is really just a lie from the dark pit of hell.

The truth is that when I think I understand, I’ve just started on the journey.  I still need to take the journey.  Otherwise, I’m stuck with a little head knowledge and no wisdom.

It’s so sneaky that we can fall into the trap without even realizing it.  We call it “productivity”.  As in “I’ve got to be more productive, or I won’t get everything done.”

Oops.  There it goes.

That’s the slippery slope that leads where we don’t really want to go.

Where am I going with all this?

If you’re a person who read Study the Bible – Six Easy Steps and said to yourself “Ok, that seems pretty clear, I’ve got it!” but didn’t do the study of Titus, you’re standing on that slippery slope. 

Doing the study is what cements the Bible study process into you LIFE.  It’s what takes you through the process and shows you what it feels like to actually study the Bible. 

Doing the study helps you confront the dragon of “I’m not sure what to do next!”  Or the monster of “did I actually do that right?”  Have you considered the demon of “this doesn’t make sense!”?

These are all real issues that Bible students run into.  And they really aren’t Bible Students until they’ve learned how to get past them.

In the moment, they might seem insurmountable.  But a little time and persistence can work amazing wonders in terms of conquering them.

But not if you walk away first.

If that’s you, I suggest you stop whatever you’re doing right now and get your hands on a Bible Study and make it start to work for you.

Titus