It's simple

Orthodoxy is complicated, for sure.  There is a lot to learn, and with a 2000 plus year history, you will never learn all of it.  The theological formulations are such that converts have to "un-learn" as much as they have to learn, because we carry so many presuppositions into the Church with us, it often takes time to let go of them and let the Church speak to us and through us.

But in a very real sense, Orthodoxy is simple.  Simple to the point that the very word "Orthodoxy" is not really accurate.  "Orthodoxy" might be bound up in a set of beliefs, an ideology, things we think about Christ and His Church.  The truth is, the Orthodox faith is not simply believed, it is lived.  And the simple fact is, being Orthodox means living life as an Orthodox Christian, simply.

When I was about to be chrismated, an internet "friend" gave me some great advice.  He said "don't be a weirdo."  He didn't mean "don't act like an Orthodox Christian," because most people think we are weird enough as it is and he was aware of that.  What he meant was don't wear a cassock to cut the grass and swing a censer as you walk around the house.  That is, be as normal as an Orthodox Christian can be and still authentically live the faith.

As Orthodox Christians, many of the habits we have, the things we do, the things we wear, how we pray -- the "externals" to use a word my priest tends to disfavor because it carries some baggage with it -- ARE weird.  Objectively.  The world sees us doing them and wearing them and saying them and thinks "well, that's odd."  Or, too often, "they're odd."  But there is a balance between being a "normal" Orthodox Christian (which is to say, to be a baseline level of weirdo), and being what one famous Orthodox meme-maker refers to as "hyperdox."  I teach my children that the world already thinks we're weirdos.  And yet, I also teach them, by word and example, to take the faith seriously.  They often cover their heads in Church.  They own and use prayer ropes.  They attend the services.  They say their prayers.  And they live out the faith and identify in the world as Orthodox Christians.  And that is more than enough.  

Something the Orthodox Church offers that too many other traditions lack is authenticity.  So it seems to me that we ought to own the things that are of the Church and not shy away from them.  Wear your cross.  Own, use, and, if you wish, wear your prayer rope.  Go to the services.  Keep the fasts.  Keep the feasts.  Say your prayers.  Have your priest come and bless your house and your automobiles and your office and whatever else you would like to have blessed.  But own it.  Live it authentically.  We should neither shy away from the things of the Church, nor try to amplify them beyond the norm.  Having an Orthodox identity is a good thing.  But the faith is not merely something to which we assent, much less put on as a costume.  It is something we live.  We should live it authentically, humbly, and simply.