I pray that your love
may abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment. That you may approve
the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense till
the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9
I normally watch
some TV in my down time. The shows I usually watch are about travel, the
outdoors, art, history or home improvement. Watching these shows relaxes me and
allows my mind to rest from institutional drama I am exposed to in my work. I
also, on occasion watch some religious programming.
I enjoy, In Touch, with
Charles Stanley, Enjoying Every Day Life with Joyce Meyers and now and then
Creflo Dollar. These speakers use the Bible as their template for discussion
and offer practical, everyday advice about how to live the Christian life. 
Yesterday, a day
of rest for me, I caught a Joyce Meyers broadcast. In this program she was
discussing 30 in 30. She explained that she was challenging viewers to study 30
minutes in their Bibles daily for 30 days. “Whoa,” I thought, “I’ve got that. I
study that much and more everyday as it is.” As Joyce went on to explain
‘study’ I realized my ‘study’ fell more into the category of reading. I read so
much Bible daily. Joyce outlined one method of study she uses. She prays, reads
and then writes down the principles or truths that her reading brings to her
mind. She thinks about these things during her days, and subsequently uses them
in her teachings.
Ok, that’s a bit
more than I’ve been doing this last
year. I have read from beginning, Genesis, just about to the end of the
New Testament. I read and re-read certain passages in Psalms, Proverbs and
Isaiah as the need arose. I gained a lot of knowledge but did I study? I guess
the answer would be no.
One of the hallmarks
or fingerprints of being a quasi-hippie in the 60’s was a live and let live
philosophy that promulgated a type of
acceptance of all people, all beliefs systems and all values. Years later I am
no longer that hippie chic, but I think for myself and many other Christians,
the feel good, warm-fuzzy mentality of love somehow got filtered into the
Christian concept of loving others. This kind of mushy, sappy, hug on your neck
Christianity translated into practice of being non-discriminatory in who you
loved, how you loved and what that love looked like. I’m not talking so much
about immorality, but more of a sentimentality that doesn’t engage the brain or
spirit in a higher level functioning. 
In terms of
Christian service, per se, a hug, a warm handshake, a friendly hello on Sunday
morning began to translate into less actual hands on ministry. Pastors used to
make house calls, (to be fair some still do). There used to be barn-raisings,
and social events where community helped each other. The official church in
much of small town America has ceased from the position of help your neighbor -
to attend church on Sunday and the work the rest of the week and well, the rest
of weekends are for ‘family’. Many hurting needy people need more
contact/outreach from the body of Christ than the once a week how-de-do
greeting.
Today, reading
and studying the first chapter of Philippians, one verse caught my eye. Vs 9
“
I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all
discernment. That you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be
sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. “
It struck me that yes, Paul is
talking about more abounding love, but more specifically he was talking about
love abounding
more and more in knowledge and all discernment.
In knowledge and all discernment?
What is this talking about? I decided to dig a little deeper into these words
and see if I could gain a better perspective. I decided to explore synonyms for these words.
Discernment- judgment, acumen,
discrimination, perspicacity, taste, shrewdness, sensitivity, selectivity.
Perspicacity- discernment,
perceptiveness, astuteness, shrewdness, clear-sightedness, cleverness,
intelligence, sharpness, acuity, insightfulness, wisdom
Shrewdness- discernment, wisdom,
discrimination, prudence, intelligence, judiciousness, perceptiveness, acumen,
good sense.
Acumen- shrewdness, insight,
penetration, judgment, intelligence, wisdom, expertise, perspicacity,
perspicuity, sharpness, good judgment.
Knowledge- wisdom, learning,
education intelligence, erudition
Wisdom- understanding, knowledge,
sense, insight, perception, astuteness, intelligence, acumen, prudence,
sagacity, good judgment
Perspicuity-articulacy,
articulateness, eloquence, self-expression, fluency, clarity, lucidity
The
sum total of these words seems to mean to my way of thinking a serious,
well-thought application of actions towards others that demonstrate a
meaningful expression of love. More than a handshake for sure.
The
awkward part of this for me is to analyze how I am expressing ‘love’ towards
the people I know and realize that most of what I”ve done comprises giving
things/money and stuff, helping with practical things like moving, cleaning,
babysitting, and continuing to pray.
There must be a whole lot more things, attitudes and actions that I
could be doing if I prayerfully spent time thinking of who I should help and
what that help should look like.
I
used to volunteer more; family, school, Head Start and church. I donated time
and effort towards various projects. I felt good about what I helped accomplish
but I wore out. I think over time the ‘vision’ for the efforts faded. This makes me wonder, what in the world do you
do to keep active in helping others without the accompanying burnout? Most of the people I know who work
in the social service field experience this burn out on a regular basis. When I
worked in a large church, many of the church staff experienced burn out also.
I
guess it comes down to the judgment part of the love formula. Keeping balance
in your own life so that you don’t get involved in a passionate endeavor, with
all the greatest intentions in the world only to discover part-way to the
finish line you’re sick of the project. Balance; translated into not allowing
the needs of others to so encompass you that you neglect your own health,
fitness, economics, emotional well-being, and spiritual well-fare. I believe
that this is easier said then done. Much of the Scripture is a call to arms to
help and given our American work-ethic, and drive for success, more is better;
bigger is better and numbers matter. We approach loving others much like we
approach a work project; we set goals, we set deadlines we measure our
performances.
It’s
possible to make the whole business of loving another business and the warmth,
the humanness the spontaneity evaporates and the people we’re “helping’ start
feeling like we don’t really care about them.
Tomorrow,
God willing I want to keep going in Philippians and see if I can gain any
additional direction. As it stands, I am now more acquainted with the problem,
we need more love, but less sure of how to proceed in the intelligent,
meaningful way we discussed today. I
know a lot of people. Many of them are lonely and hurting. Many people need
money. Many people need encouragement. Many need a helping hand. Physically,
emotionally, financially I am not the person to meet all those needs. I care
about the people and their needs but I only have so many resources of time,
money and energy. Add to this that in the past, I have been easily manipulated
by others to do more than was wise or prudent.
Wisdom appears to be a necessary part of the whole love in action
process,
Where
to begin? Well for today, I am working on having a willing heart, and being
willing to make a commitment to get more serious about this issue. Who to love,
how to love and when to love. And when, sometimes, to walk away and allow
consequences to bring people to the point of realizing that they need to step
up, put forth more effort and learn to help themselves or to learn how to call on God to help them become more self-sufficient.
Well,
it’s still really cold and I’m going to take a short drive to our little
community library so I can post this to my blog. If you have thoughts about
this topic, please share. I will write you back. Take care…………………… and may your
love abound more and more.
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