Learning for the Sake of Learning

Whatever happened to learning something simply for joy of learning something new?

We as a society have become conditioned to the idea that learning is supposed to give us a useful or practical skill that will benefit us somehow, in particular financially.

For instance, learning to read helps us know how to operate things because we can read the instructions. It also helps us get a driver’s license as we need to be able to read the booklet before taking the written portion of the test. Reading helps a baker know what ingredients are needed in what quantities and how to put those ingredients together to make the final product.

Knowing basic math helps us balance a checking account and make proper or change or know how much change we should receive when paying cash.

These days, if you decide to go to college it’s with the expectation that you will learn something that will help you get a job. That’s not a bad goal, but that shouldn’t be the only thing you learn. I know when I went to my local community college to pursue a degree in Paralegal studies, I took a course in creative writing because I knew by then I wanted to do more than be a paralegal. I wanted to write. Being a paralegal was a way to give me some semblance of a guarantee that I could support my son and myself while pursuing my goal of being a writer.

While there are things such as reading, writing, and basic math that we all need to learn, what’s wrong with learning something simply because you’re interested in the subject or you enjoy it? I’ve discovered that learning something simply because you want to can enrich your life and in some cases you may even discover a talent you didn’t know you had.

In my case, I’ve been studying Latin because it’s interesting and I think it will eventually help me study other languages I’d like to learn. It’s also not as dead as you might think. Our own language has borrowed from Latin. Words such as “senator” or “memorandum” are Latin. I also plan to learn French, and possibly Irish. They may not be practical, but I think I’d enjoy learning them. What’s wrong with that?

One thing I love to do when I can afford to, is blow glass. I’ve wanted to learn how since I was a teenager, but never thought I’d get a chance to learn (the how I discovered it and got to learn is a story for another time). Even if I got the chance to learn, what would I do with it? The answer is I’d have fun and while doing so produce some nice, practical pieces I can use or hand out as gifts. As I type this, I’m using the first paper weight I made to hold open the notebook I use to write my blog entries in longhand. See? Practical and beautiful!

I’ve also been learning to quilt, knit, crochet, and do cross stitch embroidery. None of these things will make me money. I simply enjoy doing them.

My mother can create fabulous beaded earrings. Depending on the length, it can take her from six to ten hours per pair. Yes, 6 to 10 hours. She does so for love of the craft. She won’t sell them, but rather if she makes you a pair, it’s because for some reason she values you as a person.

I have a friend Suzanne who decorates cakes. When she’s done, they look they were done by a professional bakery. I once asked her what she’d charge to do one for my birthday. She refused to sell me or anyone else a cake. She could do it for money, but she does it for love of creating. She also makes beaded jewelry for the same reason.

My roommate’s ex father-in-law used to make grandmother clocks by hand from a kit. He made one for each of his children. Simply because he loved doing it and he loved his children.

My point is that we lose so much when caught up in making money. There’s a world of learning out there to explore. We need to find and rekindle our natural curiosity and follow it where it leads. Who knows? You might even find a passion that could make you money and leave you time for other pursuits.

Stupid, Silly, and Disturbing Advertising

I was dining at a Denny’s restaurant recently when I saw a standalone ad on the table. It read, “Eating has its rewards.” It was about a new program Denny’s is offering that allows you to earn points towards free food at their restaurant.  I looked at it and thought, “of course eating has its rewards. Food tastes good, fills our empty bellies, and provides fuel for our bodies.”

That’s not the only silly ad I’ve seen in recent weeks. There’s been a commercial on TV for Dunkin Donuts that I’ve seen a few times. The tag line at the end states, “America runs on Dunkin.” Every time I hear that I think, “Really? I don’t even know where the nearest Dunkin Donuts is located. Even if I did, I couldn’t drink their coffee or eat their donuts, unless they make gluten free donuts.”

I’m not saying their food is bad. In fact, there was a time when I absolutely loved their donuts, especially the cream filled, chocolate iced ones. It’s just that in recent years I’ve discovered that I do better without gluten in my diet and I’m allergic to caffeine.

I recently saw one of the silliest commercials I think I’ve ever seen. It was for Gummi Vites and basically it said there used to be only one way to get your vitamins. A pill that you had to swallow whole and if you failed, it was likely to taste nasty. I thought, “Really? If we eat a reasonably healthy diet, we’re likely to get most, if not all the vitamins we need.”

However, the commercials I find most disturbing are the ones for prescription pharmaceuticals.  When I was growing up, you’d see commercials for over the counter pain relief or antacid tablets, but never anything for which you had to visit your doctor to receive a prescription. I remember being mildly surprised the first time I saw an ad for a prescription medication. If memory serves, it was for something to help people who had a particular type of arthritis.  At the time, I just figured that was the way TV ads were going. Over time as I saw more and more prescription products being advertised, I started wondering why the big push. I mean, if people need those kinds of drugs, they’re going to be calling their doctor for an appointment and talking about whatever’s bothering them. These ads seemed silly as a result.

I know now they were pushing them because they wanted to sell more of the drug and make more money. They didn’t truly care about the people their drugs were supposed to help. If they did care, they’d have been more up front about the possible side effects. I know whenever I hear a commercial for one of these products, the narrator will quickly go over a list of the most common side effects, but you have to really be paying attention to catch them all. Unfortunately, people who took those drugs weren’t completely informed of the possibility of more serious side effects and were often seriously injured. Worse yet, some died. Those same companies that were pushing their drugs so hard are now being sued. It too bad that by the time people realize the full extent of the problems, they and their families had been seriously hurt. The companies involved have made lots of money – more than enough to pay legal fees and any potential settlement to the people they’ve harmed.

I was curious about the approximate percentage of drugs that are advertised and then subsequently pulled after doing grievous harm. After a quick search, I found one website that claims 33% or one in three drugs will be pulled.

Ultimately the choices are ours about what drugs to take. So, if you see a drug advertised for a health issue you have, do yourself a favor. Do as much research as possible before you talk to your doctor. Better safe than sorry and I’m sure your family would rather have you around safe and as healthy as possible, than be worrying about long term care or planning a funeral.

Going to Church

I used to attend church on a regular basis. I went to the same church for over 10 years. Then it imploded in a spectacular way. The church actually made the news. I suspect partly because it was so large, with over 2,000 people in our congregation alone (there were satellite churches in other states as well). By the time the church fell apart, I had quit attending due to things I saw and heard that didn’t seem right to me. I know now that God was trying to heal people’s hearts of the emotional wounds they’d received in their lives, but the devil managed to get in there and twist things around.  As someone I know pointed out, when God moves, the devil isn’t going to sit back and watch it happen.

After that church fell apart, I didn’t attend any church on a regular basis. I was too hurt and unsure where to go. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’d been fairly well indoctrinated that that church was “THE” church to be at and their rules were “THE” rules to live by. It took me several years to realize that there was a lot of legalism there and a lot of years to get past it and truly learn more about God.

I did eventually start attending a church that was held in one of the buildings formerly owned by the last church. After a few years, I started attending a second church on alternating Sundays with my roommate. It made sense financially to attend both churches in one car, rather than me attending one church all the time necessitating the use of both cars every other week.

Eventually, I got tossed out of the second church. My roommate and I had a meeting with the pastor and an elder after which, they told my roommate that he could attend church as long as he came without me. Why? I’m a woman, my roommate is a man and we’re not married, nor are we likely to ever be married. I was surprised at this, but my roommate was not. He told me that God had told him this was going to happen. So, we left and continued to attend the other church.

Before I go on, I should mention that the pastor at the first church we attended also knew that we were living together and were not married, nor likely to ever marry. He didn’t throw me out, but he did refuse to dedicate my son before the Lord. Dedicating a child before the Lord is a public acknowledgement of responsibility for the child and a promise to raise the child up in God’s way to the best of our ability as a parent.

The first church eventually fell apart due to financial reasons. According to the pastor, it cost a lot more than people realized just to turn the lights on every week.  

So, now I’m without a church again. I’ve actually tried attending a few and I’ve been reminded that the “church” is actually the people inside, not the building itself. This doesn’t mean I’m looking for a “perfect” church. I’m not. I’m simply looking for a church where I feel that God is free to move however He wants and people truly want to grow in Him. What I’ve found is people playing “church” or worse yet, coercing people to come to church.

Allow me to explain what I mean by the numbers, so to speak.

Church #1 This one had a woman for a pastor, which bothered me, but I attended as it was literally across the street and I was having problems with my knee at the time. It was Easter Sunday and my son and a friend of his came with me. The service started out with the usual music/worship and then they proceeded to do a special Easter Service. In this case, rather than having a large group of children/young adults do one play about Easter, they had every age from pre-school to high school on stage doing something for Easter. The youngest ones were supposed to simply quote some scripture, but you could see some didn’t want to be up there. The older children did more of a stage play for their part. By the time every group had given their presentation, I was thinking, “How many times and in how many ways can you tell the story of Easter?!” I truly appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. I just don’t appreciate having it retold to the point of feeling like I was listening and watching a broken recording. It also made me wonder what my son’s friend thought about it, although he did ask me some good questions.

Church #2 I met an old friend from my former church (the one that imploded) and went with her to services at a couple of churches she attends. The first church was nice in that I saw and talked to other people I’d known from the same church she and I’d known each other at, but the more I attended, the more saw that they were fearful of end times. I understand that fear as I used to worry about it to the point where I’d pray, “Lord, if possible not in my life time please.” Then one day I realized that in saying that I was cursing the next generation or possibly the one after that. It dawned on me that the end times as written in the book of Revelation are going to happen and if I trust God no matter what happens He will see me through them.

Church #3 I went to one service at the other church my friend attended and was again delighted to see an old friend from the former church that imploded. When the music service started up, I was startled to feel like I’d walked into a jazz bar or coffeehouse. I learned after the service that the woman leading the music service that morning had been a jazz singer and had decided to dedicate her voice and talents to the Lord. That’s a wonderful thing, but I’d been taught that in those situations a person like her should have been part of the congregation till she’d walked in that decision for awhile.

Church #4 I went to this church because my son attends with my mother and I thought it would be good to know what kind of church he was attending. I actually went to a couple of services, one on Sunday morning and one on a Wednesday evening. What really bothered me most was the music service felt like miniature Hollywood. One time there was a choreographed dance before the Lord, complete with matching outfits. I don’t have a problem with dancing before the Lord as a form of worship when it’s spontaneous and comes from the heart. The other time the music ministry group was videoed and put on a big screen, which didn’t bother me a lot, until they did a close up of the leader. He wasn’t singing a solo that I recall at that point, but was simply part of the whole group. To me, that was a way of glorifying the leader, rather than God.

Church #5 I attended because I’d read their signboard in passing several times and thought it might be interesting. What I found was a church that was teaching very basic, foundational doctrine. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. This church has been around for several years and I kind of thought that by now there’d be more maturity. Not only that, but I hung around in the foyer/lobby area for several minutes after the service in hopes of seeing a friend that I knew attended that church. No one, not one single person walked up to greet me.

The final two churches really stand out for me for very different reasons. Read on to see what I mean.

Church #6 This church is literally located up the street from me and therefore I could walk, which was nice. I stopped in on impulse one Sunday morning and got a huge surprise. The men sat one side of the church and the women and married couples on the other. Okay, I can live with that. The pastor was talking about dating that morning and I was in full agreement until he said that the problems in Jacob’s marriage were cause by Jacob’s lust, yes lust, for Rachel. That brought my thoughts to a screeching halt.

Jacob’s lust?! What lust?! Lust does not wait and work seven years to attain its goal. Lust yanks and pulls and demands instant fulfillment. Jacob not only waited and worked seven years for the privilege of marrying Rachel, he agreed to work another seven years for the privilege upon discovering that his father-in-law Laban had deceived him by sending Leah to be his bride. Laban’s deceit of Jacob was the cause of the marital problems in Jacob’s house.

At this point I decided to leave as soon as I could do so unobtrusively. During a break in the service, I got up and walked out. Only later did I realize that the men were filing out while the women puttered in their pews waiting for the men to finish leaving.

Church #7 The last and most recent church I visited, my roommate and I actually attended for three weeks. The biggest problem was something I learned after the first service. Another old friend from my original church (yeah, we’re pretty scattered; some of us live across the country now) came up to us after the service and greeted us. I was delighted to see him.

We talked for quite a while after the service and my friend told us that some of the people in the congregation were renting low income housing from the church. As a condition of renting the church housing, the people had to agree to attend at least one service a week. This truly bothered me. It bothered me so much that I finally told my friend that I thought the church was coercing people into attending service. He justified it by saying they had a choice about renting a house on church property.

I don’t agree. It can take months just to apply to get on a waiting list for low income housing. Then when you finally get on the list, there aren’t a lot of choices available.

More importantly to my way of thinking is that nowhere in the Bible do we see God doing something for someone and then demanding something in return. God says, “I stand at the door and knock…” Not, I bang on the door and demand to be let in.

Jesus spent his ministry sharing God and performing miracles. The only thing he ever asked in return was that they would not sin again. He never asked for payment or made demands. He simply did what God told him to do and let things happen as they would.

Why should we be any different?

I also heard the minister at the last church say, “God only asks us for one day a week.” In reading the Bible, the only things God says in relation to one day a week is for us to rest. He does tell us that we should not stop gathering ourselves together, but He doesn’t say how often we should be gathering. He never specifically said, “You must attend church one day a week.”

I really would like to find a church where the Spirit of God is free to move at will, but until then, I think I’ll skip going to church. Besides, people are the church and the Bible says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am." Matt 18:20

Not Sinning Keeps the Devil Away?

A former friend of mine once said that as long as he wasn’t sinning, the Devil couldn’t pick on him.  I asked him about Job and that started a conversation in which I got judged and unfriended. His loss. Anyway, I’d like to see what the Bible has to say about the Devil picking on God’s people, so grab your favorite version and follow along.

Let’s start with Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve are first created, they have no idea what sin is. They are completely innocent, naïve even. They are told that they may eat of any tree in the garden, except one. The tree of knowledge of good and evil.

At this point they’ve only had conversations with each other and God. One day when Adam is off doing something else, a serpent (Satan) starts talking to Eve and telling her how God knows that when she eats of the forbidden fruit, she will be like God knowing good and evil. If you believe that the Devil can only pick on you when you’ve sinned, then by what right did Satan as the serpent, pick on Eve? For in tempting her to do that which God had forbidden her to do, he was picking on her.             

If we look in the book of Job, we read that Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.” Job 1:1 (NAS) As we read further, we see that Job had seven sons and three daughters. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. Job was rich!

His sons would gather at one son’s house on feast days in their turn and invite the daughters to join them for the feast. That says something about Job as a father. His sons would take turns hosting the feasts and would invite their sisters. How many of us would do that for our siblings?

Another reason he was such an amazing father is that he would offer up sacrifices on behalf of his sons because they might “have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was a man who put God above everyone and everything in his life and modeled that heart in front of and for his children.

The Bible goes on to tell us that there was a day when the sons of God presented themselves before God and Satan appeared as well. When God asked Satan from where he’d come, Satan replied, “From roaming the earth and walking about on it.” Job 1:7 (NAS)

God asked Satan if he’d considered Job, for there was no one like him. “He was a blameless and upright man, fearing God, and avoiding evil.” Satan told God that Job feared God because God had put a hedge of protection round about him on every side. God had blessed the work of Job’s hands and made him rich. Then Satan claims that if God removed the protection and took away all that Job had, Job would surely curse him. God told Satan that he could do what he would with everything Job had, but he could not touch Job himself.

The next time Job’s children got together for a feast day, Job lost everything. One servant comes in and tells him the oxen and the donkeys have been taken and all the other servants were killed. While he’s speaking another servant comes in with the news that his camels have been stolen as well and he alone survived to tell the tale. Then still another servant comes in with the news that fire fell from heaven and burned up all the sheep and the servants except for the one standing in front of him telling him of this most recent disaster. Then the final blow. A servant comes in and tells Job that a great wind came and struck the four corners of his eldest son’s house where his children had been feasting and they were all dead. Job’s reaction? “He arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped.” Job 1:13-20 (NAS)

In chapter two we see that the sons of God are presenting themselves again, and again Satan shows up. God asks from where Satan came and Satan tells God he was “roaming the earth and walking around on it.” Job2:2 (NAS)

Now here’s where it gets interesting. In verse three, God says to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.” Job2:3 (NAS)

Let’s look at that last part again. Satan incited God to ruin Job without cause. There was no sin in Job’s life for Satan to pick on. In fact, Satan had to go to God for permission to pick on Job at all.

Eventually, Job loses everything, including his wife. His friends have come to him and instead of offering comfort, insinuated that he must have done something wrong to incite God against him. He’s covered in boils and can only sit in a pile of ashes scraping at the boils with a piece of scrap wood or pottery. At every point where God allows Satan to pick on Job, Job has been blameless and upright. Despite all that Satan did, Job did not curse God and die.

In the end we see that God restores to Job everything he had and then some because Job stood firm in his faith and did not curse God.

Let’s also look at Jesus, THE Son of God. Jesus led a blameless, perfect life while he walked this earth. He did his father’s bidding no matter the cost. When he spent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying, Satan was right there tempting him and picking on him. Anything to get him to turn away from God.  Mark 1:12

So the next time you’re being picked on by Satan, remember that there’s more than one reason that he could have an opening in your life. While it could be because of sin in your life, it could also be because you are trying to walk with God the best you know how or because you have unhealed wounds in your heart. Satan hates to see anyone walk with God and will do everything in his power to stop you.