My vacation was just short of two weeks and it’s taken me almost two full weeks to recover from it and get back to my normal pace. What’s that about?
The good news I realized on my vacation is that, for the most part, I like my normal life just as well as a good vacation. There were plenty of exciting things to see and eat and do on vacation, but I looked forward to my life at home which has its own rhythm and pleasures. That felt good to realize.
The bad news? I had to admit that I hadn’t really been enjoying my life for the few weeks leading up to my vacation. I had let my schedule get so frenetic that I found I didn’t really appreciate the good things I had going on. There wasn’t enough space or time to experience myself living my life. Instead it seemed like I was just rushing through it – crossing things off my to-do list and lamenting all the tasks I knew I wasn’t going to get to.
I came home yearning to simplify.
One of the things I did to take a look at what’s most important in this life (the key to simplicity I read somewhere) was to read through the Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5:1+ and Luck 6:20+). I figured it wouldn’t hurt to read what Jesus had to say about life. I expected it to be enormously clarifying, but instead I came away like many of His followers did thinking, “Wow, that was really spoken with power, but I don’t think I understand what about 80% of it meant!”
I was reminded how silly we are in modern America to think that an intellectual understanding is the key or first step to growth. What makes us so sure of our own ability to grasp the deeper truths in life?
Jesus tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 NIV) Perhaps Christianity isn’t something we figure out and master, but instead something we experience one step at a time on a journey of discovery with the Creator of the universe.
I have to admit that I am both excited and intimidated by the Divine experiment that Jesus calls us to. It feels much safer in my armchair with my Bible and my dictionary, but God asks us to grow through application (practice, practice, practice) rather than through masterful understanding.
I guess that’s good news. I suppose I’d rather that the secrets of the universe be too powerful and beautiful and complex for me to graph out when I have a few spare moments and a highlighter. But the experiential (taste and see) nature of following Jesus seems so messy! How do I feel safe if I don’t have all the answers in advance, if I haven’t figured it all out? How will I know if I’m going in the right direction?
Jesus told His followers that the way to evaluate any teaching is to look at the results it produces in people’s lives. At least I think that’s what He was saying. The NIV translates it, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistle? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:15+ or Luke 6:43+)
For me that means that I can stop worrying about making a mistake (because I know my path can’t help but be full of them – I’ve seen my work!) and roll up my sleeves and get to it. If the path is good, it will produce godly results like peace and patience and progress. If my best understanding of what’s right only leads to frustration and frenzy and discouragement, it may be time to question my understanding.
God designed the laws of this universe with us in mind. This messy and imperfect world is where God wants us to become the people He designed us to be. We may not get all the answers up front, but our lives with God are teaching us and shaping us. My human mind reaches out for certainty and rules, but God seems to value seeking and practicing and baby steps forward. Perhaps what God values is more generous than what I value. No amount of certainty ever changed the sourness of a bad apple.
Going deeper – You might want to check out some of the Sermon on the Mount. That Jesus sure is deep! Maybe you’ll get something else entirely out of what He said. Don’t take my word for it – ask, seek, knock – and put on your seatbelt cause the truth can be a bumpy ride!
Hi Judy!
Thank you for taking time to share. Your thoughts are appreciated.
Dan (Hee Haw)
Regarding ‘vacations’ or for that matter any “special” event. My experience matches what you describe in the first 4 paragraphs very closely most of the time. I have found it is a shift in focus between the routine of NOW and expectation of some future event and in the period leading up to the ‘vacation’ or “special” event. We stop living in the NOW and begin living in the future. Zig Ziglar says something to the effect of we become time travellers, while at work we think about things at home we want to do and while at home we think about things at work we didn’t accomplish so we are always traveling and never living. We can get caught up in living in the past or in the future that we miss all the moment by moment simple joys around us, such as the sunrise, a rainbow, a star lit night, the fragrance of a flower, the cheerful chirping of a bird or that greeting by a loved one.
Since you mentioned putting on our seatbelt cause the truth can be a bumpy ride. I just started sitting thru The Truth Project and it very revealing how subtly our culture tells a little lie and weaves it into everyday things and next thing we know we are like Eve in the Garden of Eden totally accepting the Devil’s lies and thereby missing out on all of God’s goodness. We no longer have a source or reference point for universal truth and we end up in confusion, lost and without hope. In the world we may for instance forget about how the good ground, nutrients, sunlight, water needed for the tree to produce fruit and get into debates about the color, texture, flavor of the fruit totally missing the point that it is what goes in that is important in determining the result.
I think that is part of the challenge in understanding the simple truths of God’s Word, such as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does talk in parables, seeing if we will just dismiss the ideas as unimportant or difficult or confusing or whether they will be like Moses’ burning bush and will cause us to turn aside and wonder and ponder. I personally have come to the belief that it is God’s way of building relationships with us. If we have curiosity or desire to learn more we will pursue and thereby grow closer to God.
It is more about who we are becoming as a result of the learning or experiencing rather than what we are doing.
I guess that is why we are called human beings rather than human doings.