For the last few months I’ve been thinking about prayer and
Scripture. See, I enjoy teaching the Bible. I enjoy asking questions and
proposing applications. I’ve been doing this in student ministry for nearly ten
years and I have learned the gifts I have and the things that I don’t do well.
I’m pretty regular with my own reading of the Bible (I don’t say this with any
pride) but I’ve always been a little reticent when it comes to prayer,
especially spoken prayer. Throughout the month of January, my church has been
going through a study on prayer. None of it was especially revelatory if I’m
honest, but it got me thinking: am I just learning about prayer or am I doing it? Is the knowledge I’m learning simply
enabling me to teach others or is it actually affecting my behavior? These
questions ran up against, and coalesced with some other thoughts I’ve been having
about teaching others. A question emerged: Am I learning or am I experiencing?
So I made a course change. I dedicated myself to give up
teaching for a month. In my Sunday school class we decided to focus entirely on
reading the word aloud and to praying for the things that we always say we’ll
pray for but never do. It is hard? Yeah. On day one, I had to fight back the
tendency to fill the silence with my own observations. It is awkward at times?
You bet. Are there weird silences? Absolutely. Perhaps though, the Lord will
speak in the silence. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will move in the absence of
exegesis. Perhaps we need to feel uncomfortable to ever be able to grow. I have
no idea what the outcome of this course will be, but I figure that the world
will benefit from less of me and more of the Lord.
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