Quit studying and start living!

I think I am going to have to spend half of my spring break expanding on these thoughts! I love that I am having them though :)

Today's list and then expanding on some:
-Faith is personal, but never private.
-Where have you seen God today?
-Being 100$ sure in your faith.

Tonight in bible study, we looked at Colossians 2:6-10. One of the things we talked about was "School's out! Quit studying the subject and start living it!" (Col. 2:7, The Message). So what does it mean to START LIVING it?

The way I see it, faith is a two way street. You can go to Church every Sunday or pull the Bible out every night and get nothing from it if you do not PREPARE yourself. This is not preparing in the sense that you make sure your cell phone is off or you have that glass of water by the bed before you start reading... this is prepare in the sense that you pray that God enters your life and speaks to you, with you, and through you.

I have sat in many worship services in the past and "got nothing" out of it. A lot of these services I went into expecting everything, but I never said "Here I am God and I am ready for you." Other services I went into with the idea that I already didn't agree and wouldn't enjoy it. Surprise, surprise... I got nothing.

As my Pastor said tonight- it isn't the Pastor's fault, or the choir's, or the liturgist's, or even God's fault that you get nothing out of a service. It your fault alone. If you do not open yourself up to the experience there is no way to receive anything. It is also important to realize that you won't necessarily find it in the sermon. It may be in the anthem, or the scripture, or even in the person sitting next to you (this is probably the most powerful and most common for me).

So what do you do when you have witnessed and received God's love in this way? YOU SHARE IT! That is what faith is about for me. FEELING, RECEIVING, and SHARING. This what I think is meant when Peterson translated Col. 2:7 as "School is out! Quit studying the subject and live it!". We have gone to church, we have studied the Bible, now it is time to go out into the world and LIVE, RECOGNIZE, and SHARE it.

Faith is a two way street. Once we RECEIVE it, we should SHARE it. Our faith is incomplete until we do this. I see it like I do with teaching trumpet lessons. Tonight I was teaching lip slurs to one of my students. A very basic technique that has always been present in my playing and was something I never thought too much about. Tonight my student asked me what the purpose of lips slurs was and why she should do them every day. I never completely KNEW lip slurs until that moment when I had to SHARE what I knew with someone else. This "completed" the process- years ago, I learned how to do a lip slur. I did them on my own, not really understanding why except that I was told to. Tonight, I shared what I knew- I quit STUDYING the subject and instead LIVED the subject.

That is what we should do with our faith. As my Pastor said tonight, "Faith is personal, but faith is NOT private." So go out there and open up your entire self to faith, and then go live it and share it in any way you can!