Month: August 2024

Learning to Learn

“I am still learning.” — Michelangelo (at age 87)

Someone once told me, “Some people live and learn. Others just live.” I’m hoping we all want to be the first kind!

So, what do we need to learn? Sometimes it’s professional, like a new skill we need to develop in order to do our jobs better. Sometimes it’s personal like how to adapt to health challenges, financial pressures, growing-up children, aging parents, or relationship struggles. And, always, it’s spiritual. Every challenge we face and every mistake we make has a spiritual component – something we can learn.

How can we learn at whatever stage of life we are in? The first recourse, for those who are Christians, is the Bible. We need to keep reading it, following its wisdom and its Author.

Next, we need good counselors or mentors. There are always those who have already traveled the road we are on and can offer sage advice from their own experience. And sometimes books can be those mentors to us if we find quality authors sharing their wisdom.

Finally, we just need to pay attention. Friends and family communicate in words, deeds, and sometimes just body language. Our own bodies tell us what they need. Watch, listen, learn. We can never stop learning. We need guidance in every step of this journey through life.

As we learn, we live better: Serving where we are placed. Taking care of our bodies. Loving those nearest to us. Getting to know those who are farther away. Mourning meaningfully. Enjoying celebrations. Sleeping well.

Let’s learn something every day of our lives!

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long. – Psalm 25:4-5

It’ll be OK.

“God did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted, but he said: You will not be overcome. God loves us and delights in us, and so he wishes us to love him and delight in him and trust greatly in him, and all will be well.”  
—Julian of Norwich 

Sometimes we feel like we pray and nothing happens. We’re not sure God is listening and we wish we could somehow get his attention. Maybe the key to connecting with God’s attention is giving him ours. How do we do that:

Focus: Set a time to give full attention to God. During this time, there is no multi-tasking. There is only one goal: To think about God, what he’s like, who he is, and what a privilege it is to worship him, to be allowed to talk to him.

Listen: Being very conscious of his presence, we turn to his word to read. We focus on taking it in, thinking about how it may apply to us, sensing something he really wants us to see this day. Then write it down. We may remember it, but we’re more likely to remember accurately if we write it down

Do: If he tells us something to do, we do it as soon as reasonably possible. A delay shows lack of priority. The urgency will get lost the longer we wait.

When we shut out everything but God, give him our full attention, and obey what he says, he will listen when we call, and we will know, without doubt, that whatever happens in our circumstance, he is working in the middle of it – no matter the outcome. All will be well.

“But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him”. – Psalm 4:3

Going Global

“Your piety is worthless unless it leads you to wish that the same mercy which has been extended to you may bless the whole world.” – Charles Spurgeon

About 15 years ago, I felt God was asking me to pray for the whole world. I tried that for a day or two and realized my prayers needed more focus than “the whole world”. I went online and found an organization that would send me a daily email with background and detail about a country to pray for. I learned a little about one country and prayed for it that day, then another country, and another.

After a few months of this, I took a position at Our Daily Bread Ministries and found myself in the middle of an organization with a passion for reaching the whole world with the Gospel. And, through my work there, my husband and I became involved in a ministry in Pakistan that has captured our hearts and our focus to this day. If anyone had told me a year earlier I would be deeply involved in Pakistan, I wouldn’t have believed them.

Do you see what happened? God began to convict me of the need to broaden my horizon. Then he led me to the next step and the next until it completely changed my focus. Maybe God is asking all of us to think more globally. Once we realize that he is at work in amazing ways all over the world, he may open doors for us to join him in his work.

Your story will be different from mine, but it will be an adventure. Following God is never less than that!

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations,his marvelous works among all the peoples!” – 1 Chronicles 16:23-24

NOTE: A shout out to my Pakistani friends who read this blog!

The Unkept Commandment

“You will never have enough till you get Christ; but when you have him, you will be full to the brim. Contentment is the peculiar jewel of the beloved of the Lord Jesus.” – Charles Spurgeon

When God gave the Ten Commandments, we notice that the last one is different from all the rest. It’s about an attitude, not an action that is noticed by others: It says we are not to covet. Ignoring this commandment may have something to do with the breaking of many of the others. People can want something so much they are willing to steal, lie, or even kill to get it.

When a ruler of Israel came to Jesus asking how he could have eternal life, he boasted that he had kept all the commandments. Jesus didn’t argue with him. He simply told him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. Hearing this, the man was disheartened and sorrowful (Mark 10:22). His reaction showed the commandment he was not willing to keep was the one against coveting – wanting more, not less. We’ve all been there at some point.

Coveting is not always about things. Sometimes it’s about reputation, status, or relationships. And it’s dangerous: Coveting steals our contentment and replaces it with bitterness, resentment, and even hatred. Above all, coveting separates us from God and creates stress.

Luther says the cure for coveting is trading our worldly desires for holy desires. In other words, we have to look at what really matters: We have God’s love. He will never leave us. We have work to do in his kingdom. We have a glorious eternity. We already have what matters most. And contentment is the result of recognizing that.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4