I’m always amazed at how God uses aspects of my past to enrich my ministry now. Many disappointments have turned out to be learning experiences that have prepared me for what I’m doing today. But to go any deeper, I have to first make a confession – I was a teenage metal-head. By the age of fourteen I had grown my hair down to my chin, wore black to school every day, and spent most of my free time in my bedroom practicing Metallica songs on my guitar. I had a dream that I would become a guitar virtuoso, record albums, and spend my life performing around the world. Obviously that dream never happened. At some point I hit a plateau, and couldn’t quite play the way I wanted to.
Every so often I pick up my guitar and play some of those old tunes, still wishing I could play them as fast and as smooth as I wanted to. A few months ago I was surfing the internet and came across a program that promised to speed up your progress. The author, Tom Hess, developed a “Geometric Approach” to learning guitar. Basically that means that in order to make progress, you need three things: a technique, the ability to apply that technique in a musical situation, and integrating that technique into your other techniques. Rather than trying to practice one thing after another, Hess developed exercises that addressed all three of these aspects at the same time. For example, I could take the time to learn a basic arpeggio and play it extremely fast, but I also had to learn which chords I could play it over and transition seamlessly into another technique – like a scale run.
As I went to bed that night it struck me that someone could take a similar, geometric approach to theology. To really grow spiritually, or even to speed up your spiritual growth, it’s necessary to have a theological concept, a way of applying that concept to everyday life, and a way of integrating that concept into other concepts and life experiences. Let’s take something out of the Nicene Creed, that Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, and became a human. In the fourth century the theologians who worked on this creed made another statement, that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human. That’s wonderful on a purely intellectual level, but the work of every generation is to apply it and integrate it into their own lives. If I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, it redefines for me what being a human means. If I make a mistake, rather than saying “well I’m only human,” I’ll take responsibility for my mistake and ask God to guide me towards better choices. I know that I have missed the mark, and I’m a long way off from where Jesus was spiritually, and I know that I’m forgiven for falling short (integration), but that doesn’t mean that I stop where I am. Instead I can pray for guidance and growth, (application) asking God to make me a little more like His Son, the one who is fully human.
As you can see, these three aspects: concepts, applications, and integration don’t follow a linear path. Instead they’re more like building blocks used in construction. Rather than a direct, start to finish process, they create a three dimensional image, one that’s much more exciting, richer, and personal than before. As your taking your time in your own spiritual practices: Bible reading, prayer, Forward Day by Day, etc. – keep this approach in mind. How could you take a concept you’re learning, and both apply to your life and integrate it with other aspects.
Every so often I pick up my guitar and play some of those old tunes, still wishing I could play them as fast and as smooth as I wanted to. A few months ago I was surfing the internet and came across a program that promised to speed up your progress. The author, Tom Hess, developed a “Geometric Approach” to learning guitar. Basically that means that in order to make progress, you need three things: a technique, the ability to apply that technique in a musical situation, and integrating that technique into your other techniques. Rather than trying to practice one thing after another, Hess developed exercises that addressed all three of these aspects at the same time. For example, I could take the time to learn a basic arpeggio and play it extremely fast, but I also had to learn which chords I could play it over and transition seamlessly into another technique – like a scale run.
As I went to bed that night it struck me that someone could take a similar, geometric approach to theology. To really grow spiritually, or even to speed up your spiritual growth, it’s necessary to have a theological concept, a way of applying that concept to everyday life, and a way of integrating that concept into other concepts and life experiences. Let’s take something out of the Nicene Creed, that Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, and became a human. In the fourth century the theologians who worked on this creed made another statement, that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human. That’s wonderful on a purely intellectual level, but the work of every generation is to apply it and integrate it into their own lives. If I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, it redefines for me what being a human means. If I make a mistake, rather than saying “well I’m only human,” I’ll take responsibility for my mistake and ask God to guide me towards better choices. I know that I have missed the mark, and I’m a long way off from where Jesus was spiritually, and I know that I’m forgiven for falling short (integration), but that doesn’t mean that I stop where I am. Instead I can pray for guidance and growth, (application) asking God to make me a little more like His Son, the one who is fully human.
As you can see, these three aspects: concepts, applications, and integration don’t follow a linear path. Instead they’re more like building blocks used in construction. Rather than a direct, start to finish process, they create a three dimensional image, one that’s much more exciting, richer, and personal than before. As your taking your time in your own spiritual practices: Bible reading, prayer, Forward Day by Day, etc. – keep this approach in mind. How could you take a concept you’re learning, and both apply to your life and integrate it with other aspects.
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