Learn from the Past, but Live in the Present

Last week in Florida I visited the oldest city in America, St. Augustine, Florida. Buildings that are there and are being preserved get to be the oldest in America. Of course, with American ingenuity, they call it a museum and charge people money to see it. The oldest fort is now a National Park in St. Augustine and tourists traipse through it viewing the old cannons and the walls and hollows in the walls in which the soldiers lived. It’s one thing to look, remember, and learn from the past. It’s another thing to live in the past.

Last week I spent time in my hometown, Daytona Beach. I don’t have any grievances toward the city at all, but it’s in my past. I have changed and grown since my days there and now, I’m just one of the many tourists that visit there. It’s good to look back to see where you’ve been in order to use it as a guide for where you are going. It’s not ever good to desire or to live in the past.

My pastor always tells us to live in the present to make the future better. He’s correct. We have to learn from our past, from both the accomplishments and the mistakes, but we cannot live there. If we live in the past, we cannot move forward. We can only visit it and remember who we have become.

One of my favorite television shows is Cobra Kai. One of the characters, Johnny Lawrence, continues to live life as if it is 1985. It’s funny to hear what he says when he learns something new. He is frightened of the new. He even throws it away, but it’s only in the new that we can truly live.

As a Christian, we cannot linger in the past. We cannot tarry over our sins or mistakes or flaws. We have to repent and move forward. We have to forgive and learn from that incident and move forward. If we don’t, we get stuck. Then we get angry, which can lead to depression and constant whining. We’ve all done it. We all must remember to move forward.

It wasn’t easier “back in the day.” It was just more convenient. It was convenient to hide who we really are. Today, thanks to modern technology, it’s difficult to hide. Back in the day, we made mistakes and had lots of issues. We just have different mistakes and issues today. We must learn and grow every day.

Going back home was a good experience. You cannot relive the memories. You need to make new memories with family and friends. Our society would be a much better place if we would just step up and begin to live in the present and work for a better future.   

Knowledge and Faith

This last week I spent time in Orlando, Florida volunteering with a Bible quiz ministry called National Bible Bowl. Teenagers all over the country study portions of the Bible and come together at tournaments to demonstrate knowledge of God’s Word in a unique competition that combines memorization of scripture and recall. The best part of this ministry is that for many of these young people, it is the one ministry that helps develop their faith.

Faith is not built on knowledge, as we have faith in what we cannot see, but knowledge helps build our faith. Knowledge has never saved me from or for anything. I still do not know how the periodical table will give me guidance in my life, but I learned it, and because I learned it, I can see how the elements can combine and create a chemical that can help or heal. With that knowledge, I understand that events occur that I cannot always see but because I know how they work, I believe that they work. It makes sense to me. It’s how I have maintained faith. The knowledge did not give me faith, but it led me to believe in what I could not see with my physical eyes.

Last year I blogged how this Bible quiz ministry is nerdy but very much needed in our churches. I still believe that. We need knowledge that confirms our faith. A cliché that many say, “God said it; I believe it and that’s it” is cute, but how inaccurate it is because many people not even know what God said! It has taken me years in my faith journey to be consistent to open the Bible and read it for my own. I used the Bible to study, but I have to also use it to guide my life with my faith.

As a teacher, I know that when students have knowledge about a subject, they are able to excel at the application of that knowledge. Many of them have resorted to cheating when they do not know and understand. They cheat because with a lack of knowledge they have a lack of faith in themselves and in the system. When people lack knowledge of God’s Word, they begin to say words and live life of how others dictate for them to live, which is cheating themselves from a personal relationship with God. A relationship demands that we know the other person and not just facts about the other person.

The young people and their coaches and parents in this ministry strive to have both knowledge and a faith that requires strength.  Some of the former students in this ministry have become exceptional leaders in their churches and in their communities, and their faith continues to become stronger. Yes, some students have made decisions that have led them away from the church and some from God, but they keep encountering and engaging with those of us who know them and continue to pray for them to encounter God and rekindle a relationship with Him that joins both knowledge and faith. This ministry builds lifelong relationships that those who run from God cannot escape. Those who connect with those who have run continue to pray and show love to them. It’s difficult to be mean when someone is showing you kindness.

The church will begin to thrive as it allows those with knowledge to show their faith and lead in areas of ministry. We are at a crucial time in our history in the American church. We need to incorporate knowledge into our lives along with our faith. The ministry of these Bible quiz teams may be unique, but they are vital to the heartbeat of our churches. In this time in our American history, we need young people who know God’s Word, love those who they encounter and have faith because they have seen how the knowledge builds faith. We need to KNOW God and connect God with those who need to know him. Then, the church will begin to impact the world, and the impact the church makes will be with the love of Jesus. Let’s begin to make that impact.

Adventure Is Out There!

If you are a normal person, you travel without any hitches, and if a hitch occurs, someone in your party throws a temper tantrum. That person should never travel with me because the journey will not be without small complications.  It’s the complications and hitches that makes traveling an adventure. An adventure is much more fun to endure than a smooth trip because an adventure has thrills, excitement, difficulties, and triumphs. Life should be an adventure not a smooth comfortable trip.

In the Disney movie, Up, it is exclaimed throughout the film, “Adventure is out there!” Throughout the film the characters discover that adventure is not always somewhere out there, but with us every day if we just look for it.

On an adventure you see new places, take in the scenery, eat exotic food (or at least food you don’t indulge in every day), and meet the most interesting people. I strike up conversations with people all around me. The people teach so much about life. the scenery reminds me that there are beautiful places all over our world. If in our own hometowns we would appreciate the beauty of what is around us, especially the people, we would discover how spectacular life can be. we wouldn’t fear the unknown or people we do not know, but we would embrace them with our presence and take a risk to speak to them and show kindness.

On an adventure, there are difficulties. We get lost in new places; we get caught in storms; we go to places that are not as great as the brochure said they were, and we honestly get frustrated with our fellow travelers. There are always difficulties, but it’s how we respond to them that creates in us a spirit that continues to move forward and fight whatever battle is in our way. Life needs to be an adventure. We need to face every bump in the road with a fresh perspective that even in the hitches and complications in life, there is beauty in the journey. It’s only through failures and complications and tragedies do we grow stronger and learn more about who we are.

On an adventure, we take risks and discover that we are stronger than what we thought we were. Whether it is eating food we have never tried, or exerting a physical activity that we thought we could not conquer, or exploring a place on the path that went in a different direction. We must take risks in life in order to grow as people. Taking a risk means leaving our comfort zone to grow and learn in order to make a difference in the world. If we never leave our comfortable space, how can we really make a difference?

On an adventure, we meet new people who are different from the people who we usually befriend. In our lives every day, we should be making a conscious effort to gout outside of our comfort zone and meet people in order to show them who Jesus is. It can be a friendly gesture to a barista, especially a new one, or the clerk at a store. It can be a parent who is in public with little ones running around testing every facet of the parent. A kind word can make a world of difference to someone. We never know what someone else’s struggles are.

As I read the gospels, I have discovered that every day with the Jesus the disciples had an adventure. They experienced Jesus calming storms on the water, healing various diseases, saw demons come out of people, ate with various people that many religious leaders considered unfit, went to many places, broke rules on the Sabbath, and one even was able to walk on water. Most of all, they experienced Jesus’s love and grace, especially through his sacrifice on the cross. In the end, those disciples created their own adventures and the church was born. It was not comfortable or easy, but in the end, the adventure was well worth it.

So, I may be in another state from where I live, but I have learned that I need to take my adventurous spirit with me and create an adventure that is well worth it. “Adventure is out there!” All that is needed is to step out of our comfort zones and into the unknown of a great big world waiting for us.