Faces on Faith: Let’s keep learning
Often times, when we realize we’ve learned something new, we call it a good day. Even if it seems to be something inconsequential, learning one new fact expands our thought, our mind. And during this past year of coronavirus, we’ve all had to learn new things just to manage the totally changed life around us. So how do we do this?
During this past year, we’ve all had to learn technical things that we never anticipated having to know. Zoom meetings have kept us connected with dear ones from many groups, but how to actually do one was a mystery. Turns out we’ve become rather accomplished at it over the months and it has kept us connected to family, different island organizations and even our church congregations.
Are you feeling a resistance to learning something new? We all have innate intelligence because it comes from God. We can’t be held back by the notion that we’re too old to learn, or by any other human theories about learning.
Listening for what God is communicating is all important. In the Old Testament book of Exodus we read how Moses was afraid to go to the children of Israel and speak. Communing with God, he said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” God assured Moses with these words: “Who hath made man’s mouth? … Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” Listening for the power of this inspiration is still here for us today since it comes from God and God is eternal.
I remember one of the things I learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that I have returned to pray with many times. My teacher called it the 5 G’s and it goes like this: God, good, guides, guards, governs. From this, I learned that God is all good, as the Bible referring to God, tells us in Psalms, “Thou art good, and doest good” (119:68). At one point, I thought I had it all figured out. My college summer break had arrived and I was looking forward to a job working at a resort in northern Wisconsin. However, a few weeks before the job was to begin, I was told that I would’t be needed after all. Disappointed? Yes, but God had better things in store for me. Shortly there after, I met the man who was to become my husband and I realized that I’d been in God’s loving care all the time, that he’d been guiding, guarding and governing my experience all along.
So remember the 5 G’s when you’re wondering what to do next. We’re never too old or too wise to listen to God’s message and learn what he has in store for us. It’s always far better than anything we could ever have imagined on our own.
Mary L. Miller is affiliated with the Sanibel Christian Science Church.