Someone asked a friend of mine what I do for a living, and my friend
replied, "He's an
inventor." Maybe I am an inventor; I don't know. Maybe the label "inventor"
captures my
basic approach to life: trying to reach beyond normal methods to gain
better results. I'm a
strong believer in learning normal methods, because they are based
on many other people's
experiences, successes and mistakes. I certainly don't need or want
to duplicate everyone
else's experiences; I would prefer to gain from their experience! It
has been said that the only
thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. I
don't want that to be true for
me.
There seems to be an attitude in our country that everyone should be
allowed to make
up their own mind about everything. Morality, truth, ethics, behavior,
relationships. I want to
suggest, however, that people really don't believe that applies to
everything. If it did, schools
and colleges would have no value at all; zero.
I had a college student tell me once they weren't interested in my perspective
of
spiritual matters because I wasn't objective enough. It's a good thing
that student doesn't feel
the same way about their professors. Imagine what it would be like
to attend a college course
if the professor tried to be totally objective about his subject, believing
that everybody has to
decide for themselves. Everything, and I mean everything, would be
reduced to theories,
which every individual in the class would be free to accept or reject.
Would you submit to
medical treatment by a doctor or nurse who had attended such a college?
We would be fools to categorically reject the experience and knowledge
of other
people, the methods and insight of those who can teach us. Anyone who
sees himself as the
only judge of what has value will never amount to anything, by anybody's
standards.
It has been said that rules are for the obedience of fools, but are
guidelines to the wise.
I basically agree with that, although I believe there are absolutes
in this universe that we would
all be wise to observe very strictly. Anyone who decides to ignore
the law of gravity had
better have good insurance; it's called a law because it isn't negotiable.
Likewise, when God
says, "Do not ...," you would be smart to "do not," even if you don’t
understand why not.
Most of life is not black and white, though. In addition to absolute
laws, we learn to
work with principles, guidelines and rules of thumb. These are the
things we work with most
frequently in normal life, that help us make decisions and know what
to do. It is in this part of
life that we can use the concepts presented in this study.
If you accept the fact that God created the entire physical universe,
you might also
agree that he knows a whole lot more about what works in this universe
than those of us who
have just lived in a very small part of it for a very short time. Doesn't
it simply make good
sense to ask his advice? To value his opinion? To try seeing things
from his perspective?
This applies not just to designing new labor-saving machines, but also
to life situations
and problems.
JOURNALING
Questions for Journaling:
1. Lord, what changes would you like for me to make so I can
become more
effective?
2. Lord, in what ways am I ignoring the important things in
life?
3. Lord, am I handling unexpected interruptions well?
4. Lord, what do you want to tell me about the way I handle
guilt? Fear? Anger?
5. Lord, what goal do you want me to focus on today? How should
I work toward
that goal?
6. Lord, speak to me about what I heard in class today. What
points do you want
me to latch
onto and work with?
7. Lord, what idea have you given me recently that I ignored?
8. Lord, in what way am I trying to fulfill your vision in
my own power?
9. Lord, is there anything you're trying to show me that I
am not seeing?
10. Lord, in what ways am I trying to take credit for what you are
doing?