How many of you have a story about when you really learned that you have fingerprints? Well, I do. It happened because I was a curious little boy. You know how you can tell a child over and over again that something is hot, but for some reason, they don't really seem to catch on until they touch something that's hot and learn what hot really means? Well, that's part of my story.
I grew up on a farm. One thing you often find on a farm is a welder. I had always been told that the metal was hot when it had just been welded on. But one day, I must have decided that I needed to discover that for myself. So I leaned down and picked up a piece of metal that had very recently been welded upon. Needless to say, it was pretty hot. I remember my fingers hurting (Thanks be to God that I only picked it up with the tips of my fingers.). And as I looked down at my fingers to see the damage and to figure out why they hurt so much, I noticed something. I had patterns on my fingers. At first, I thought that they came from the metal. So I watched over the next few days, but they stayed there. Thus, I learned that I had fingerprints.
In a way, this story emphasizes the point I want to make today. It's great when we learn from what others tell us. However, more often than not, we seem to learn through experience. That is, we have to experience something before we really learn it. I learned how hot metal gets when I touched it, even though I had been told many times that it was hot. For some reason, that just seems to be how we humans are.
In that same vein, we also learn when we have to come to the conclusions for ourselves. In one way, I believe that is why Jesus so often spoke in parables. When you have to think about the story and figure out the point, that's when learning is most effective. Simply being told "this is what you need to know" so often doesn't seem to get through. Sure, it does for some, but for many of us, we learn as we think things through.
Too often, preachers seem to lose sight of this. We get up there and tell you what the problem is, how God has solved it, and what that means for you. While helpful, I also believe that it is appropriate at times for God's people to have to come to the conclusion on their own. Leave things hanging a bit. Let them wrestle with what exactly it means or says. I'm convinced that God's people, through the leading of God's Spirit, will often be led to what God is saying, and that will make it stick even more than if the preacher had simply stated it outright.
Agree? Disagree? Comments and thoughts are welcome.
I grew up on a farm. One thing you often find on a farm is a welder. I had always been told that the metal was hot when it had just been welded on. But one day, I must have decided that I needed to discover that for myself. So I leaned down and picked up a piece of metal that had very recently been welded upon. Needless to say, it was pretty hot. I remember my fingers hurting (Thanks be to God that I only picked it up with the tips of my fingers.). And as I looked down at my fingers to see the damage and to figure out why they hurt so much, I noticed something. I had patterns on my fingers. At first, I thought that they came from the metal. So I watched over the next few days, but they stayed there. Thus, I learned that I had fingerprints.
In a way, this story emphasizes the point I want to make today. It's great when we learn from what others tell us. However, more often than not, we seem to learn through experience. That is, we have to experience something before we really learn it. I learned how hot metal gets when I touched it, even though I had been told many times that it was hot. For some reason, that just seems to be how we humans are.
In that same vein, we also learn when we have to come to the conclusions for ourselves. In one way, I believe that is why Jesus so often spoke in parables. When you have to think about the story and figure out the point, that's when learning is most effective. Simply being told "this is what you need to know" so often doesn't seem to get through. Sure, it does for some, but for many of us, we learn as we think things through.
Too often, preachers seem to lose sight of this. We get up there and tell you what the problem is, how God has solved it, and what that means for you. While helpful, I also believe that it is appropriate at times for God's people to have to come to the conclusion on their own. Leave things hanging a bit. Let them wrestle with what exactly it means or says. I'm convinced that God's people, through the leading of God's Spirit, will often be led to what God is saying, and that will make it stick even more than if the preacher had simply stated it outright.
Agree? Disagree? Comments and thoughts are welcome.
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