One of the perks of teaching is that you are continually learning. Sometimes this happens in the moments of preparation, and sometimes it happens in the very act of teaching. On Wednesday night, I was teaching the youth about Epiphany, and I learned something while I was talking.
You can’t schedule an epiphany – but you can prepare for one.
I can’t decide that next Thursday will be the day that I achieve a moment of clarity, or a revelation from God about whatever decisions have been vexing me.
But I can persevere. I can pray – asking, seeking, and knocking with hopeful expectation. I can seek counsel from wise people who care. I can work diligently to put all the puzzle pieces together – that final piece is the one that gets all the credit for being an epiphany, but it would be just another piece if the hundreds of pieces that preceded it weren’t in the right place. In short, I can be faithful in seeking.
I was reminded of this from my pastor friend, who recently posted this regarding how we approach spiritual growth. Every epiphany, starting with the capital “E” one, is an act of grace.
3 comments:
Patrick! Titus and I are up late and found your blog via Larissa... I think this is the patrick I know... hmmm... I scrolled through your old posts and like the angel picture. I laugh because I have all of these little angels on our XMAS tree made out of roses--with chubby faces and rosey checks--and blond curls. They are very cute, but not what you think of when you read about angels in the Bible. I also liked the XMAS post--David recently set me straight on that one after I told him that I got in trouble in GA's as a kid for writing Merry Christmas on a nursing home card... OK--hope you and Jeni are doing well! And the pets too!
Sorry--I wrote Merry XMAS on the card.... The teacher said I was replacing Christ with an X!
Ah, grace. How I need it. How often I forget about it. In my studies this week I came across an illustration from John Ortberg. It provided another slant on the topic we've apparently both been batting around.
Significant human transformation always involves training, not just trying. Spiritual transformation is a long-term endeavor. It involves both God and us. I liken it to crossing an ocean. Some people try, day after day, to be good, to become spiritually mature. That's like taking a rowboat across the ocean. It's exhausting and usually unsuccessful. Others have given up trying and throw themselves entirely on "relying on God's grace." They're like drifters on a raft. They do nothing but hang on and hope God gets them there. Neither trying nor drifting are effective in bringing about spiritual transformation. A better image is the sailboat, which if it moves at all, it's a gift of the wind. We can't control the wind, but a good sailor discerns where the wind is blowing and adjusts the sails accordingly. Working with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus likened to the wind in John 3, means we have a part in discerning the winds, in knowing the direction we need to go, and in training our sails to catch the breezes that God provides. That's true transformation. From John Ortberg, "True (and False) Transformation," Leadership Journal (Summer 2002), 104.
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