The borough of Ealing in West London has had an annual problem with flooded streets after heavy rainfall. The area borders on an urban wetland and the municipal authorities first considered a complex and expensive engineering proposal involving the construction of a reservoir to deal with the overflow. But eventually they went with a much simpler solution - the introduction of a family of 5 beavers into the wetland. Beavers have been extinct in the UK for some 400 years, but this family settled in quickly and within a year, their natural flood control techniques had prevented the streets of Ealing from being flooded for the first time in ten years!
It's a great story and it reminds me of the little verse in the book of Ecclesiastes that reads: "God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated." (Ecc 7:29 (GNT)) We most certainly do face real, complex challenges and I'm not suggesting we be naive about that, but sometimes it may be that there is a simpler way. And when we are prepared to stop and genuinely listen for God's direction, sometimes he will send us a family of beavers :)