Have you ever wondered why some people are so blessed? What are they doing that you are not to achieve such blessings? What is their secret? And I am not talking about social media where you only see the good stuff people wish to post. But real live people you actually know just filled with blessings and joy? I know I have.
I haven’t done bad for myself, in fact I’ve done well, but I want to break the mold. To do better than just “pretty well.” I want more than just satisfaction. I want joy and purpose to fill my life. So, I started on a quest to find the secrets of life.
My Quest
My first stop on this quest landed me in the Bible. Ironically, despite my Christian upbringing, other than anecdotal stories from Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, I NEVER read the Bible. It’s a big book! With TONS of information! But the task seemed so daunting and pointless.
Isn’t the Bible just a storybook passed down for hundreds of years by oral tradition before it was written down? Sure, some argue that divine intervention prevented perversion of the writings. I heard all of that, but it was still imperfect humans that were compiling the document. Then you add in the canonization process and that just seemed even more evident that man was far too involved for this project to be anything more than man made. Plus, the whole “oral tradition” part?? We’ve all played telephone we know how well that goes, RIGHT?!?! So other than a great story book with a moral point it really couldn’t offer me very much. Or could it?
The Realization
I am a professor by trade, and in 2020 when we were all forced into lock down, my colleagues and I were on a Teams call and we were complaining about our students. How frustrating it is that we provide all this information and guidance on our course sites and if students would ONLY read the information, we provide they wouldn’t have any questions. They would understand their expectations to be successful. Then it happened. One of my dear colleagues and friend said, “Do you think that’s how God feels?”
Then it hit me. It was almost surreal! It’s like those scenes in cartoons when the vision of a character fades in and out after being bonked on the head. I was metaphorically bonked on the head. I’m not sure if it was timing, I’m not sure if it was what was happening in the World. All I know, this statement resounded very loudly to me, and I needed to do something about it.
How I Changed
So, January 1, 2021, I started reading the Bible daily. I used a Lutheran Study Bible. (Being raised Lutheran, it made sense). But what I loved about this Bible was that it offered lots of side margin explanation and clarification. It also gave a historical view at the front of every book letting you know what was going on historically at the time and why this book was significant. It spoke to me at that moment in my journey and gave to me more than just the words of scripture.
Reading the Bible only stirred more questions in me. However, the quest before me to read the Bible and to understand what I read could not be ignored. The desire to understand what God wanted with my life. Let me tell you now, I don’t have all those answers, but each day I learn more and understand a little more how to be obedient so that I can find out those answers I so desperately seek.
During this time, I also left the Lutheran church I had been attending on/off for 15 years. The sermons didn’t seem to be relevant. I struggled to connect the sermon to my everyday life and find relevance in the teachings. As a family we started exploring different denominations of the Christian faith to find what we were looking for. It was out there, I just needed to find it locally. We currently attend three different churches in three different denominations (we all like something different).
God is Reaching Out
What I have discovered thus far in my journey is God is trying to communicate daily with us. Most of the time we are too busy being human to listen to what our Creator has to say. I mean how relevant could it be? He is only the creator of everything in this universe! What could He possibly know about how to navigate His creation successfully? (I hope you sense the heavy sarcasm in my voice.)
If God is trying to communicate, HOW do you hear His voice? He seemed so silent to me for so long. I felt out of touch and unsure how to connect with Him. One of the pastor’s helped me to re-establish my connection and quiet my own voice so that I could hear God’s.
Here are the Six ways you can re-establish communication with God and experience a blessed life:
Read the Bible
Yup I said it! Is it hard? Yup, sure is. Is it Long?! Yup that’s why it takes a year (or more) to get it done. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! Way more interesting stuff in the Bible than just Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Jonah and Jesus. (Ok well maybe there is nothing more interesting than Jesus, but definitely more interesting than the others!)
If you get a Lutheran Study Bible or something similar it will help with the understanding of what you are reading. Also New Living Translation Bibles can be much easier to understand. The funny thing though there are so many Bibles out there you can just about find one to suit anything you need.
I liked the Study Bible because I liked the added historical narrative that explained what was going on during the time. In the back it also has a plan on how to read the Bible in a year*. (However, that plan does leave out some scripture. Anytime I noticed something was left out, I read it anyway. So, I actually took 13 months to read mine.)
There are also NUMEROUS guides out there for free that you can pick up or find a digital guide that tell you how to read the bible in a year. Another option is The One Year Bible which has scripture broken down by day and not by book. Great if you are reading in a year, not so great if you are trying to look things up.
Pray
It doesn’t have to be formal, perfect, or fancy. God just wants to hear from you. Sure, Jesus gave us a method for praying that if you can’t think of anything else you can just say the Lord’s prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13) But you can also use that prayer as a “template” of how to structure your own prayers. But if you are totally new to prayer, just starting is all you really need to do. Get comfortable in just making a habit to check in with God daily. You start to find you will do it multiple times a day.
Connect to a Church Family
This is probably the hardest part. Reading easy (can do that from home.) Pray, piece of cake I can do that anywhere. Church? That means I need interaction with other “Christians?” Been there done that, and it isn’t worth the T-shirt? I get it. You’ve seen the contradictory behavior. You know those people that say they are Christian, but it seems that Christianity stops on Sunday. Where does it go on Monday? Shoot you may be guilty of this yourself! How can you spend time with all these hypocrites??
Well, let me help you out. Christians are not perfect. Jesus is. When we say we are Christian, it means that we recognize we are broken, imperfect people, and we can’t improve on our own. We NEED Jesus everyday as a reminder of how we SHOULD behave. We miss the mark daily, but at least we are trying. None of us have it quite right and some may be working harder than others but at the end of the day everyone going to church recognizes that Jesus is always the correct answer.
If you were raised in a particular denomination, I encourage you to break out of it and try a different one. If you love your denomination, then maybe you just need a different church family. You may need to try several before you find the right fit. (Did I mention we are currently attending 3 totally different churches??) Find one that fits you best and dive in.
Serve Others with your Spiritual Gifts
My WHAT?? If this is news to you, you are not alone. I had never heard of this, let alone that I had any idea what on earth they could be. But just like everything else these days, there is actually a free quiz (several actually) that you can take to find this out. The one I like best is: Sacred Pathways Spiritual Gifts. This is a personality test of sorts. However, you learn what your God given natural talents are that benefit the community around you and the community of faith.
There is a catch. Once you KNOW what your Spiritual Gifts are the next step then is to find a way to serve others using those gifts. Maybe at the church you’re attending. Maybe there is a ministry that speaks to you, and you can bring special gifts and talents to that ministry that will help it flourish. Or maybe you find you are of better service in the community at large like a homeless shelter, boys/girls club, soup kitchen, clothing or food bank, you get the idea. The point is once you know what your gifts are you need to share them!
Fellowship with Other Believers
This comes back to that whole church family thing again. Which if you managed to be successful in that then you should be on your way to developing relationships within that church family. So, the next part is just taking it a step further. Instead of just going to church, go to a Sunday School or Bible study class. Maybe you finally go to that 4th of July church picnic, or you volunteer to cook pancakes for the Shrove Tuesday dinner. Whatever your special gifts are you can use them not just in serving others but connecting with others socially within the church community you chose.
Tithe
For many of us, this is by far the most challenging. Many of us live paycheck-to-paycheck and cannot fathom giving up a single dime because now there won’t be enough for what we need. But I’m here to tell you that as counterintuitive as it seems the opposite is actually true. It’s kind of like love, the more you give the more there is. Miraculously the same is true here as well. Tithe isn’t a chore. Tithe is simply giving back to God the first 10% of your earnings as a thank you for giving you all that he has.
As we see in, Matthew 6:25-34, God knows everything we need, and he will always provide it if we just learn to trust him. It’s a bit of a leap of faith, I know. But if you do, its crazy to see the blessings that come from it. I mean if you want to get technical it’s all his anyway, he just wants to see if you recognize that and can share what he’s given you with others.
I hope this gets you a jump start on moving closer to Christ and living the blessings of a Christ centered life! Have a blessed week! Don’t forget to sign up to my email list so you can receive notifications of new content.
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