"One Thing"

1.     In no more than one or two sentences, what is the “One Thing” you want to pursue with all your strength and life?

Stuttering uuuuuuhhhhhhhmmmm… I definitely do not do well with only “One Thing.” And I will call it as I see it – cheating – when I claim that the “One Thing” I want to pursue is KNOWLEDGE.

What are you doing to pursue this one thing? 

I have stuck my fingers into a little bit of everything. I read; I write; I practice piano; I chase the idea of playing the organ; I learn new art forms as I get the opportunity. But in the end I am scattered and I do not know what the “One Thing” is. I know that if I concentrated and practiced “One Thing,” I could accomplish much, but I do not know which to choose. And I let other people’s ideas influence me. One person thinks I should write. One person thinks I should play. One person thinks I already do too much and shouldn’t add more. And I think that I like to do a lot of things. So I think this is a trick question. And I can form a trick answer. And an appropriate one. Something along the lines of, “The ‘One Thing’ I choose to pursue with all of my strength and life is to use and amplify by God given gifts and talents to praise Him and lead others to know His Son, Jesus Christ.” Hah! Okay, ready for a scolding.

2.    Tell about a time God encountered you and confronted you as you studied his Word. 

This happened recently … I was reading a book of Christian non-fiction. At the end of a chapter, there was this Bible verse:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or
terrified because the Lord your God goes with
you; he will never leave you or forsake you- 
DEUTERONOMY 31:6

What was unusual was simultaneously I “heard”:

“but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
MATTHEW 18:6

And I can say with conviction that I felt it to be a God encounter. I just wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it. I attempted to hold myself accountable by sharing it with a few trusted Christian friends and I do not think any of us knew exactly what to do with it.

How did this experience impact your life?

I cannot say that anything really changed. Perhaps I stopped fighting against what was being asked of me and threw myself into doing my best with what I had to work with. And maybe I realized that I had more support than I thought I did. And I might have felt more needed or wanted in what I was doing. And even now, reading the second verse, I am more comfortable with it.

To explain, I lead children weekly and sometimes more. And I was feeling, being a sinner, that I wasn’t a good role-model. Of course, then none of us should be doing it. I’m oversimplifying. Anyway, the first verse gave me courage to present my predicament and I was reassured. I was scared to “step down.” But I didn’t want to be a problem or disappoint anyone. In the end, I realized that I didn’t want to stop doing what I was doing. In fact, I’d like to do more of it … One of my friends had pointed to another book that talked about when one is denied the chance to do something, and the person discovers how much they love and enjoy it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. For me, merely considering stopping, made my heart ache.

I’m done rambling … but it’s nice to have my computer back.

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)