Teaching vs. Learning

For Father's Day, I got a 2 volume set of magic books by the late Tommy Wonder, entitled "The Books of Wonder." Great stuff, and what better content to post on "Musings of the Magi" than something from a magic book? So, here goes. In the introduction, he says: "I firmly believe magic can't be taught. It can be learned, but it can't be taught. You must do it yourself; there is no other way. There are no short cuts to real results, no matter what some may try to make you believe."
I was struck by the statement, "It can be learned, but it can't be taught." What do you all think of this, not as it relates to learning magic, but to learning anything? I think it's still important for people to teach, and for others to sit under the tutelage of able teachers. But the greatest teacher in the world cannot make his/her students learn. The students have to take an active role in learning, only then will education take place. Spiritually, how can we inspire people to learn about and experience God? How can we get them to want to learn (active), not simply be taught (passive)?

The Good Life

My Dad gave me a copy of "The Good Life" by Charles Colson, and I've finally had time to start reading it. So far, it's a great book! Colson uses a variety of compelling stories to demonstrate that the good life is not found in money, success, and power, but rather in living a life of significance. I haven't gotten to the end yet, but I'm sensing that ultimately he'll point to living a life of significance for Christ as the ultimate answer to living the good life. He hits a little close to home when he talks of our pursuit of happiness through materialism and consumerism, the desire not just to have, but to have more, and more, and more.

There may be saints immune to these siren songs, but I am not one of them,
and I doubt you are either.... We all recognize the battle within
us: One part of our nature says life has a higher purpose, and the other
part wants to indulge all our desires. We want instant
gratification. These temptations pull hard on us in this consumerist era
in which the good life is constantly portrayed in terms of possessions and
goods.
The problem is, if we give in to our basic desires, we sink deeper and
deeper into self-indulgence -- and feel worse and worse about ourselves.
It's like drinking salt water; the more you drink, the thirstier you get.
You will keep drinking, believing that more liquid will satisfy your thirst, and
instead, of course, it will eventually kill you. The more we have, the
worse we feel.

What a succint portrayal of the human condition! At least, a portrayal of MY human condition at certain times and stages of my life. Most of you know that pastors aren't the highest paid people in the community! And yet, with 4 kids and the rising cost of living, I often find myself worrying about finances, and wishing I had more money. I get caught in the trap of thinking, "if only I had more money, everything would be ok." I really don't feel I want in excess, I just want enough so that I can break even at the end of the month instead of playing catch up all the time. The writer of Proverbs says it well:

Proverbs 30:8-9 "Keep falsehood and lies far from
me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
[9] Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and
say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so
dishonor the name of my God."

It is not only something I wrestle with as I consider my personal finances, but also as I see the overall state of the church, both Bethany UMC and the Church in general. It seems like money is constantly an issue, and I continue to fall into the "if only..." way of thinking.
Chuck Colson responds to this struggle with these thoughts that I'll reflect on and leave with you now:

"The task in life is to subdue our lower nature and govern ourselves by what I
would argue we intuitively know to be our higher nature. Then we need
to redefine for ourselves and our culture what happiness really is."

See you all at Annual Conference!

Putting ON the blinders

I've been trying a new approach to my personal study of the Bible recently, and it has given me some new insights. I've put ON blinders, rather than trying to take them off. Let me explain. The way we study the Bible is strongly influenced by our preconceptions, our knowledge of other parts of the Bible, our life experiences, etc. This is rightly so, we should use as many resources as we can to determine the context in which the Bible is written, so that we can correctly interpret God's Word. But right now, what I'm trying to do is to approach the Bible as if I have never read any of it before, and have never heard of Christianity, church, etc. What if someone had never heard of any of this stuff before (an alarming number of people in our own nation, in reality), and just opened the Bible and started to read? What understanding would they come up with - of God, of Jesus, of Christianity, of the church? I've started with the Gospel of Mark (It's the oldest, and, let's be honest, the shortest!) and have been recording my observations of what Mark tells us about God and Christianity, as well as writing down some questions that come up for me as I read. And (at this point) I'm not looking to other parts of the Bible for those answers, I'm just taking what I can from Mark. I'll continue through and begin to piece it together as a whole, but right now I'm purposely seeing it with 'tunnel vision' and not trying to make sense of it all in the context of everything else. It's been an interesting exercise so far, and has given me a fresh perspective on some very familiar passages and stories that have become a bit too familiar. It's nice to see them again with a fresh perspective.