Continuing Thoughts

A little more than five years ago (October 3, 2010), I started this blog. In the last month I have lost the desire to continue it as it was going. At one point I had considered this as an outlet for personal thoughts on a variety of subjects as they surfaced in my life. Somehow that morphed into a stream of “how to” additions that left me empty and feeling like I was saying nothing. With so many experts already in the field where I was writing, I decided I was wasting my time and that of any readers.

After a hiatus of more than a month, it is time for me to start writing again. This time it will be less regimented as to publishing date. Gone is the constraint of writing every Wednesday. It will be less didactical and simply more self-revelatory. The one thing I will continue is to show how my thoughts and development have their roots in the words of the Holy Bible, the word of God.

King Solomon is described as writing thousands of proverbs springing out of his wisdom. He found insight as he watched people and studied nature. Life itself was his teacher. This increase in wisdom came about because he opened his eyes and ears to the world and his spirit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

To get the most from this brief existence we call life in this world, we must all do the same. It begins when you are born, and it doesn’t end until you die. We learn from what we take in through our five physical senses and just as much from what we allow to touch our spiritual beings. If we cannot put that in a test tube or under a microscope, that doesn’t mean we are not learning just as much. Perhaps in one sense we are learning the more important lessons of life when we are learning through our hearts rather than through our minds.

Jesus said:

Mat 11:28-30 "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."

This journey I began at conception more than six decades ago has been filled with lessons. Many I have missed and will never know what I could have been had I been more sensitive to their presence. Today I am what I am because of the lessons I learned or failed to learn. I am probably richer because of both, not necessarily better, just richer.

Through all that time my greatest teacher has been my Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes he spoke to me through his written word, the Bible. Often he spoke through those Christian saints who have already lived out their years in this mortal life. At times he has led me to see his lessons in the natural world when I was sensitive enough to let those experiences be interpreted through the nature of God.

In the future this blog will take a different form. For any who would take the time to read it, you will see the lessons I have learned and am learning under the tutelage of the Master Teacher. May God bless us both.

Old Dogs Can Learn

 Quite a few years ago now, Rev. Billy Graham was asked what he would do differently if he knew he had only three years left to live. In the middle of his prime as a Christian evangelist known around the world, his response was he would spend the first two years in intensive study and the final year in public evangelism. With all he had been through in preparation, he felt he still had much more to learn.

I can agree with Rev. Graham’s assessment. You are never too old to learn. Recently I went to an all day conference I figured would be just a refresher course on dealing with people. The speaker, a seasoned missionary who had spent many years in Europe, had a lot to say this local minister needed to hear after all. This old dog learned a few tricks as well.

How old do you have to be before you don’t need to learn anything new? A lot older than I am. How much do you need to know before you don’t need to learn something new? A lot more than I know.

That tried-in-the-fire missionary had learned much through trial and error, through mistakes and consequences. He made the comment there is too much for us to learn that we should have to learn it all through personal experience. We need to take advantage of what others have learned ahead of us.

2Timothy 2:15  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (English Standard Version)

When the Apostle Paul wrote to his young assistant Timothy, he encouraged him to study extensively to be prepared for every situation he could foresee. He was to seek God’s approval, the only Judge worth considering. He was also to be sensitive to how he handled the message of the Gospel, “the word of truth.” There was no need to modify it or soften it, just do it with integrity.

Another emphasis Paul put on continuous learning can be seen in his words a little later in this same letter. Facts are important for decisions. Knowing history and options in a situation is important. Life skills, however, allow us to live in society with honesty, integrity, and healthy pride. The Bible, “the word of truth”, is the source to use for gaining those life skills.

Paul says,

2Timothy 3:16) All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, 17)  so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed. (Good News Bible)

Knowing how to live changes with every year we live. New perspectives on life, new social circles, or a new context for living can change the way we react to the world around us. The actions must change sometimes out of necessity, but the principles that guide our actions must never change.

Study the truth, Paul told Timothy, and learn how to share it with honesty and integrity. With the truth a person will not only be able to recognize truth and error within and in the world. That person will also know how to provide correction for others which will not bring personal embarrassment or shame.

Approaching retirement does not mean one will soon no longer need to learn about the world or how to get along with people. Perhaps the opposite is more true. The more we have learned about the world around us and the people who inhabit it, the more we need to know about them and how to be true to ourselves while interacting with them in a positive and constructive way.

May the words from the writer in Proverbs be a guide all our lives:

Proverbs 3:13) Happy is anyone who becomes wise---who comes to have understanding. 14) There is more profit in it than there is in silver; it is worth more to you than gold.

Growth Stops with Death

Recently I was involved in a training event for a group of church leaders. What I thought would be “old hat” material became a time for new realizations and self-application. It was a time for spiritual and ministry growth.

It is mid-winter. Outside it is eight degrees with three inches of freshly fallen snow, balmy in comparison to regions north and west of here. Schools and the office are closed due to road conditions. Work will have to continue from home.

Growth like my work doesn’t stop because it is winter and the schools are closed. Nature uses this time to strengthen roots and prepare for the coming spring explosion of new life. Perennials will be preparing to send up new shoots and trees and shrubs will have used the time to prepare what is below ground to nurture what is above ground. At the training conference ministry growth took place regardless of the age or experience of the participants.

Growth in life begins with conception. We are growing physically from the time that first cell is formed. We change. Unique differences appear among individuals. A variety of influences bring about different results. Growth never stops. Until death comes.

Speculation about the size of some of the largest dinosaurs includes the idea their growth inhibitor code or whatever didn’t work so well. For whatever reason they kept growing until death took them. They got longer, or taller, or heavier until some organ failed, they couldn’t get unstuck from the mud, or some gang of carnivores saw them as a buffet beyond resistance. Whatever ended their growth, the possibility existed that it continued until death stopped it.

Such continuous growth is not a welcome thing in most matters. We enjoy seeing it in trees like the great redwoods of California, but we are not happy about it when it refers to our waistline. It’s fully acceptable when it refers to our bank account, but it scares us into sleeplessness when it appears on our credit card statement.

A place where it should and must occur is in the context of church leaders, in our ability to minister to others in the name of Christ. Growth must continue in the areas of our personal walk with God and in our ability to use the gifts he has given us in our service for his Kingdom. (Ephesians 4:15)

Growth takes place in two critical areas, knowledge and skill. The former we gain through study and experience. The latter we gain by simply doing. We practice. We are involved in situations where the knowledge is used over and over. We grow through using what we have learned. (II Timothy 2:15)

To ask when we can stop growing is a question having no meaning for the Master of our lives. Followers of Christ are allowed no vacations from ministering to the world. We are always on the job. Retirement is a part of our eternal rest, not a time when we can tell the world and God we have done our part and now the next generation has to take responsibility. We are to be growing always.

When we stop learning we turn inward and become cold and indifferent to a world that needs the hope we have to give. When we stop sharing, our hearts become hardened and no longer can feel the compassion we are called to express. When we stop growing as followers of Christ, spiritual death sets in and destroys our relationship with our Lord and Savior.

Growth is spurred by dissatisfaction with the status quo. Growth is spurred by inspiration from those who have grown before us. Growth is spurred by a vision of what can be through the power of the Holy Spirit unleashed in our lives. (Matthew 9:36-38; I Timothy 4:11-16)

The Lord is too big for us to ever feel we have grown in all we need to learn of him or of his plan for us. When death does come, then we will continue our growing, but we will do it at his feet.