I was looking at my post history and noticed that I have hit the 300 post mark and that means it somehow seems like that is something I should acknowledge in some way, so this will not be a typical post for me. To be honest, it kind of surprised me. I never expected this to last this long. I started posting things on this blog on October 20, 2007. At the time I wasn't sure if I would have anything to say or if I would actually make the time to write. I guess it's safe to say that all these posts later, I did have things to write and I did make the time to do so - whether anyone actually reads it is beside the point for me.
I've been reading some of the early posts I wrote and looking at some of the things I've written on. It's been interesting to journey back to what I was thinking about and try to remember what was going on in my life at that point. I've probably repeated myself a few times over the years with things I've written about. As life circumstances have changed, I've come back to the same things and God has taught me the same lesson again if I was too stubborn to learn it the first time or taken a lesson a little bit further the second time.
I've definitely wondered at times if I would continue to post things here. Sometimes it has seemed like I was out of things to write about. Sometimes I wonder if what I am saying would upset too many people. Sometimes I worry that I will say something that is possibly heretical. But, I usually come to the conclusion that we grow most when we are challenged by things. If someone really does disagree with something I say I will happily discuss it further with them - either on the blog or via email. It causes me to grow in my own walk when I have to rethink things and see them from another person's point of view.
I write about whatever is going on in my life, or what I'm thinking about, or what God is saying to me. Sometimes that means family, or friends, or the church. Sometimes it comes from Scripture, or a quote, or a book, or something a friend said. Or maybe it's just a song I enjoy currently. Really, even if no one was to read this, I don't know that it would really matter to me. A journey that I've been on for the last 5 years is recorded here in a different way than my journals record it. And they supplement each other.
I enjoy writing because it helps me make sense of my thoughts. And I have no intention to stop writing. But I also continue to make no promises about what will show up on this blog, or how frequently (or maybe better said infrequently) I will write.
Blessings to you on your journey with God. May you grow deeper in your walk and never give up on seeking God with everything you have.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
learning from the experience's of others
Do we really mean it when we say we want to learn from others instead of having to do through the experience of it ourselves? If we do mean it, why so we so often still go through the same thing and make the same mistakes ourselves? Why does it seem to be so hard to learn from other's experiences?
I've been thinking about these questions for a while. I'm currently working through Beth Moore's study on the book of Daniel with a group of ladies at my church and in a couple of spots in the weekly homework she has talked about learning the lesson from someone else's experience, rather than learning it through our own experience. King Nebachadnezzar of Babylon offers us a couple of examples we would do well to learn from his experience rather than our own. (I won't be getting into them in this blog, but you can read about some of them in Daniel 3 and 4.) As I read and study these passages, my desire is to learn from them so I never have to experience them myself. That would be much easier and more pleasant.
This is my second time doing this particular study and as I dig in again, I find that although I may have wanted to learn the lesson by reading about it and studying it, I didn't always do so. In the years between when I first did this study and now, I've had to learn some of the exact things spoken about in Daniel through my own experience. I didn't intend to, but that is the way the lessons actually stuck in my life.
It makes me wonder why that seems to happen so often in our lives. We don't just seem to fail to learn from other's bad experiences about things we need to avoid because they are sin. We can also fail to learn from other's experiences about things we need to embrace in our lives. Our lives are far too short to learn everything for ourselves, but it seems like that is often how we try to do it.
The big question I have is: Why? Why does it seem to be so difficult for us to learn from other's experiences? We desire to. We even do sometimes. But we could spare ourselves a lot of pain in life if we learned from every other person's experience all the time, rather than just sometimes. I don't know why this is so hard. All I know is that the things that have really stuck for me are the things I learned from my own experience. And I'm still left to wonder why I don't learn better from others.
I don't have an answer for this. I would love to hear you thoughts on this one.
I've been thinking about these questions for a while. I'm currently working through Beth Moore's study on the book of Daniel with a group of ladies at my church and in a couple of spots in the weekly homework she has talked about learning the lesson from someone else's experience, rather than learning it through our own experience. King Nebachadnezzar of Babylon offers us a couple of examples we would do well to learn from his experience rather than our own. (I won't be getting into them in this blog, but you can read about some of them in Daniel 3 and 4.) As I read and study these passages, my desire is to learn from them so I never have to experience them myself. That would be much easier and more pleasant.
This is my second time doing this particular study and as I dig in again, I find that although I may have wanted to learn the lesson by reading about it and studying it, I didn't always do so. In the years between when I first did this study and now, I've had to learn some of the exact things spoken about in Daniel through my own experience. I didn't intend to, but that is the way the lessons actually stuck in my life.
It makes me wonder why that seems to happen so often in our lives. We don't just seem to fail to learn from other's bad experiences about things we need to avoid because they are sin. We can also fail to learn from other's experiences about things we need to embrace in our lives. Our lives are far too short to learn everything for ourselves, but it seems like that is often how we try to do it.
The big question I have is: Why? Why does it seem to be so difficult for us to learn from other's experiences? We desire to. We even do sometimes. But we could spare ourselves a lot of pain in life if we learned from every other person's experience all the time, rather than just sometimes. I don't know why this is so hard. All I know is that the things that have really stuck for me are the things I learned from my own experience. And I'm still left to wonder why I don't learn better from others.
I don't have an answer for this. I would love to hear you thoughts on this one.
community
Note: I actually wrote this post yesterday (Saturday, February 11) while sitting a coffee shop. I didn't have my computer with me, so had to post it later.
Community...
We desire it and yet at the same time we run from it.
We love it and at the same time fear it.
We look for places that have it and also try to avoid the places that have it.
A paradox exists. We know we need it, desire it, seek it. But we've also been hurt by it and so we fear it, run from it, and avoid it.
Community...
The church should have a corner on the market for it, but our pews are often full of people who feel isolated and alone as they go through life. I've been one of those people at times in my life. Even though the culture we live in tells us we don't need it, deep down we know we really do need others in our lives. Coffee shops thrive on creating that space where people feel like they belong, but the church - the family of God - struggles to provide this for those in the pews on a weekend sometimes. It makes me wonder: Are we missing something that the coffee shops around us have? Is this an area where we can learn something from our culture?
As I write this, I'm sitting in a coffee shop (the place where I usually do my best thinking) and I've been watching people come and go for the last couple of hours. People from all walks of life, from all classes of society have walked through the doors. They have all been welcome here. They have come for a place to study, to write, to read, to chat with friends. Or simply to get a coffee and leave to continue with the activities of their days. No one has told anyone in their time here, whether a few minutes or a few hours, that they don't belong or they have to do something specific to be able to stay.
It makes me wonder if somehow we could apply something about this to our churches. Not because we are incapable of creating community - we do create it sometimes. But, maybe there is something we can do better. And maybe we can learn from a place in our culture that seems to be doing well at making everyone feel welcome and like they belong.
What would happen of we allowed people to feel like they had people who were their community before they became a Christian? What if they were allowed to belong first? Not that we would not continue to share with them and point them to Christ, but that we would welcome them in first. Would that change people's perceptions of the kind of community the church can create?
And for those already in our pews who are feeling isolated and alone, are there things we can do to help them feel like they belong? What if we reached out to them and loved them even if they couldn't or wouldn't give anything back at first? What if we made an effort to just include those are sitting near us in church in our after church plans for lunch or coffee? I know when I was one of these people in church each weekend, the way I began to feel like I wasn't alone again was because a couple of people just invited me to join them a few times. And once I felt like I had those people who cared I felt like I belonged and I was able to turn around and offer that same thing to other people.
Community...
We desire it. How do we learn to do it well, so we don't run from it despite desiring it?
We love it. How do we move past our fear of it that comes with our love of it?
We look for places that have it. How do we create places that have it that we actually want to be a part of, so we stop running from the places that have it?
Community...
We desire it and yet at the same time we run from it.
We love it and at the same time fear it.
We look for places that have it and also try to avoid the places that have it.
A paradox exists. We know we need it, desire it, seek it. But we've also been hurt by it and so we fear it, run from it, and avoid it.
Community...
The church should have a corner on the market for it, but our pews are often full of people who feel isolated and alone as they go through life. I've been one of those people at times in my life. Even though the culture we live in tells us we don't need it, deep down we know we really do need others in our lives. Coffee shops thrive on creating that space where people feel like they belong, but the church - the family of God - struggles to provide this for those in the pews on a weekend sometimes. It makes me wonder: Are we missing something that the coffee shops around us have? Is this an area where we can learn something from our culture?
As I write this, I'm sitting in a coffee shop (the place where I usually do my best thinking) and I've been watching people come and go for the last couple of hours. People from all walks of life, from all classes of society have walked through the doors. They have all been welcome here. They have come for a place to study, to write, to read, to chat with friends. Or simply to get a coffee and leave to continue with the activities of their days. No one has told anyone in their time here, whether a few minutes or a few hours, that they don't belong or they have to do something specific to be able to stay.
It makes me wonder if somehow we could apply something about this to our churches. Not because we are incapable of creating community - we do create it sometimes. But, maybe there is something we can do better. And maybe we can learn from a place in our culture that seems to be doing well at making everyone feel welcome and like they belong.
What would happen of we allowed people to feel like they had people who were their community before they became a Christian? What if they were allowed to belong first? Not that we would not continue to share with them and point them to Christ, but that we would welcome them in first. Would that change people's perceptions of the kind of community the church can create?
And for those already in our pews who are feeling isolated and alone, are there things we can do to help them feel like they belong? What if we reached out to them and loved them even if they couldn't or wouldn't give anything back at first? What if we made an effort to just include those are sitting near us in church in our after church plans for lunch or coffee? I know when I was one of these people in church each weekend, the way I began to feel like I wasn't alone again was because a couple of people just invited me to join them a few times. And once I felt like I had those people who cared I felt like I belonged and I was able to turn around and offer that same thing to other people.
Community...
We desire it. How do we learn to do it well, so we don't run from it despite desiring it?
We love it. How do we move past our fear of it that comes with our love of it?
We look for places that have it. How do we create places that have it that we actually want to be a part of, so we stop running from the places that have it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)