Happy last day of classes of New Staff Training! Yes today is a glorious day and I will not have to do 6 hours of homework each afternoon and evening for the remaining two weeks down here! I have enjoyed the two classes we have taken, Bible Study Methods and Doctrinal Survey, but I have felt like I’ve been trying to put my mouth around the opening of fire hydrant. Do you know what I mean? Picture trying to get your lips and mouth around the edges of a fire hydrant as it is shooting out gallons, upon gallons, of water. It is impossible isn’t it!?
Well, that is what I have been doing and I’ll be straight with you all – I have loved it! I have been living on a steady stream of caffeine, through the means of lots of coffee, but I have truly enjoyed “loving the Lord with my mind†again over the last two weeks. Over the last year or so I’ve taken a little hiatus from study a ton of theology (the study of God) and apologetics (defending the faith) because there have been points where my mind gets light-years ahead of my heart.
The solution that I came to over the last year was to step back from my studies and engage solely with my heart. But want I’ve noticed as I’ve been almost completely on the “head side†of the spectrum over the last two weeks, and have struggled to connect my heart with the Lord once again is that we need to have balance. So was the solution I came up with really what I needed? I don’t think it was what I needed. See the pendulum of head and heart can’t swing to far one way or the other for long periods of time. So I go back and fourth with all of this – I am a big pendulum within this aspect of the Christian faith, and I’ll be honest I’m a pendulum in many other respects as well.
But what I’m learning is that as I swing one way and then the other I see how it isn’t about putting the head into one compartment of my walk with the Lord and the heart into a different one. They need to be lived out holistically and held equally within the palms of our hands. Jesus doesn’t say that we should love him with our mind sometimes and other times then with our heart, but He laid it out as a ‘constant.’ So constant that our whole soul is also brought into the mix with the heart and mind. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matt. 22.37)
Well, now that I have some time to blog a little more well I’m down here you can expect to see some new entries coming up! Especially some of the great things I’m learning!