Was it a "God thing" or was it caffeine? When I wrote my post yesterday describing that which I believed to be a bit of divine intervention, I was flying on too much caffeine. I say too much only because I was too restless to read that evening and unable to go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. versus my usual 10:30 p.m. I used the three hours to study popular culture by watching television :-) I may have done better to lay in my easy chair and twitch for those hours!
Discernment is a fine word. It is widely used. It used perhaps more often in evangelical/fundamental Christian circles. I might hope to "discern" the difference between ordinary happenings and those that that are an answer to my requests fired off to God. I might want to discern the difference between feeling blue for a while and being attacked by spiritual forces from the wrong side of the heavens.
Does it matter if I discern correctly? Yes, it does if it then leads me take action I wouldn't otherwise take. Events led me to believe that God desires me to labor diligently toward finding better means to communicate who he is and what he means to me. If I would do better to put that energy towards some other pursuit, I would like to know. In this life I have limited time and energy. Even with an infinite God offering me assistance, I am a finite resource. When I misunderstand God's intent, I may squander that which he has given me: time and talent.
So was it God or was it caffeine? At this point I would say it was God speaking to me patiently despite the ups and downs of my mood. Yesterday was up. Today is down. This morning I was tempted to dismiss the idea that I am called to communicate.
There is great comfort in knowing that God will use even my misguided efforts to good purpose. If yesterday's essay was caffeine fueled balderdash, God may yet use it to amuse others and to humble me. Or he may use it in ways that are too wonderful for me to understand.
I still prefer to follow God's lead rather than be pushed along by drugs or extremes of blood sugar level. I will continue to discern as he enables me.
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3 comments:
Who's the book by? Was it Anne Lamott? I wonder if you could stomach an Anne Lamott book... she's cheeky, but very honest in a refreshing way.
I think you're great dad.
Thank you, Pamela. You are a sweet daughter!
The book is Amazing Grace - A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris.
I disagree with you about the starfish thing... I disagree completely. I have visited the Wodani in Ecuador, and know of the Cofan, Quichua, etc, and I know that extinction is going to happen when their language dissappears. With the Wodani (Huaorani), it could happen in as few as two generations. The knowledge of the jungle that Wade talks about is definitely gone from the younger generation.
Language is such an intricate, difficult, consuming thing to learn, when they dissappear, there will be no recovery. And the culture's identity is so entangled with the language... I can discern that from only knowing two different languages, I would love to learn another, to be educated on a whole different history and perspective.
Before this comment, I was thinking of making my third language portuguese, but now I might make it Miq'Maq, Cree or Cofán.
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