Attitude

Tension doesn't mean there is something wrong, it means there is something happening. - Graham Cooke

     I was talking to a friend the other night about the differences in our childhoods.  They were extremely opposite.  The interesting thing about it was that we had both ended up in the same place.  We both love God and have a deep desire to learn as much as we can about the truth.  Also, because of the differences, it makes our discussions very interesting and I believe God is using us in each others lives.  I tend to think I am gaining the most from it, but I also believe that when we give to each other we get back.  
     One of the ways adults get children to do something is to turn it into a game, make it fun.  Long after my daughter convinced my two year old grandson that picking up toys was fun, he continued to pile shoes just inside her bedroom door.  He wasn't ready for the game to end.  When God is talking to me it seems He repeats Himself.  Several times lately I have heard the name Eeyore.  He was not happy about learning or anything else for that matter.  My 8 year old granddaughter loves to learn.  She enjoys it.  Everything comes easily to her.  While the other kids are playing at times you will find her reading a book.  My seven year old grandson does not find it so enjoyable, unless it's a new video game.  He can plug in a new game and take off like he knows what he is doing.  He doesn't mind running out of lives and starting over because he is enjoying learning the game.
     Last night, in that stage between being fully awake and drifting into dream world God talked to me.  I think He does this because my mind has closed off the day (what I know) and is open to rest (learning).  He brought up the words, "You without sin cast the first stone."  Right away we tend to put ourselves in the position of the woman about to be stoned.  I myself get a little attitude, "Yeah, you without sin.  Ha.  Jesus put you in your place, didn't He?"  But then we move into the place of holding a rock above our heads about to nail someone else, "Oh yeah.  Okay, I'm a sinner.  We are the same."  You try to drop the rock without anyone seeing it was in your hand.  Last night God said, "What if the person about to be stoned sinned against you?"  What if one of those men ready to launch a stone at the woman was in love with her or even her husband?  It would be more difficult to drop the stone.  What if the person you were about to chuck the rock at hurt your child?  Would you wait until Jesus wasn't looking and get one little lick in?  It would be hard not to when it involves your child.
     Some of the lessons we have to learn are difficult and most of the lessons I have faced over the last year I learned as an Eeyore.  Sometimes I was kicking and screaming, angry and hurling insults as either Dave or even Jesus pinned me down and clipped my eyes open with toothpicks.  The funny part came when I finally got it, stood up brushed myself off and gave the sheepish smirk.  "Okay, what's next?"
   We tend to look at the final result and want to skip the lessons.  Would you really want a doctor to perform surgery on you if he had skimmed over or even skipped a few of the lessons set before him in medical school?  Not me.  When we are interested in the subject, we enjoy the learning, and actually catch on quicker.  God recently pointed out to me that He has put a leader in front of me with a lot of knowledge and learning experience.  It's my choice how much I want to take advantage of that and learn from him.  I could sit back on the couch with the remote and watch some mindless TV program and then ask for the answers.  I've been blessed with an instructor who is willing to share the lessons he has gone through openly and honestly.  He even shares his mistakes.  
     I was learning to enjoy the lessons until a very difficult or should I say "hard to swallow" lesson was put in front of me.  I hurled some stones.  I walked away.  I shut down.  The lessons God wants us to learn are difficult because they aren't just about history, they aren't just about others behavior, they all come back to what's inside of us.  Sometimes we have to think about being the doctor so we can sit through some of those medical school classes.  We hear the same stories over and over, but the lesson goes deeper.  First the stones are flying at us, then we hold the rock in our hand and then the person changes to someone we know.  First we see the giant, then we realize we have to face him, then we have to trust that God has provided all that we need in the five stones He placed in our hand.  First we have to face that we slept with another mans wife and had him killed, then we have to face that the consequences aren't going to be swept under the carpet, then we learn that God still loves us and we are the sons and daughter of The King.
     Appreciate that the Instructor is all knowing, He gives us the answer book and He is willing to wait forty years as we take another walk around the lesson.

“The really happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.” Anonymous