As some of you know, my day job involves teaching computer programming. My courses range from the first introduction to programming to advanced topics including artificial intelligence. One of the challenges I constantly face is balancing between individual and group work. No matter how I mix the two, I face complaints. Some students think they should be allowed to do everything with the help of classmates, the internet, and anyone they can get to help them, because “that’s how you do it in the real world.” Other students avoid working with their classmates at every turn and complain vociferously when I force them to team up.

I’m never going to give in to the first group, because a large part of the purpose of my courses is to provide students with the individual skills that will make them effective members of a team later on. However, I do have a lot of sympathy for their point of view and very little for the second group. The reality is that very little software is developed by one individual working alone, because one individual, no matter how talented and knowledgeable, has limited time and only so many areas of expertise. Teamwork is an important skill in the software development world.

Just like that second group of students, we as Christians can fall into the trap of the “I can do it myself” attitude. Really, there are two such traps.

The first is trying to live the Christian life on our power: doing things for God instead of allowing God to do things through us. It’s never God’s intent for us to act on our own power. Paul put it most clearly: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV).

This trap presents multiple dangers. An obvious one is burn-out. Trying to live a Christ-like life on merely human power will exhaust anyone. We may also spend our energy on the wrong things. As humans, we can easily choose the urgent over the important and the merely good over the very best. We are also likely to struggle with keeping our attitude positive on our own. Paul talks about being content in all circumstances “through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13b ESV). God is supposed to be our source of peace, joy, comfort. If we’re trying to do the Christian thing without Christ, those benefits will be hard to come by.

Even when we accept that we need Christ to function as Christians, we may fall into the second trap of believing that we don’t need other Christians. That’s especially easy to do when we’ve been hurt or disappointed by fellow church members. Not one of the Christians still on earth is perfect yet. This means that hurts and disappointments are going to happen, tempting us to reduce the pain by avoiding others.

The problem is that God didn’t make us that way. He made us with a need for other people. Back in Genesis, before people ever sinned, we see this: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone;’” (Genesis 2:18 ESV). Proverbs has a number of comments about the value of friends and the importance of the quality of one’s friends (17:17; 18:24; 27:6, 9-10 among others).  Ecclesiastes 4 reminds us of the value of working with other people. Paul talks several times about the church as the body of Christ. He points out that the purpose of our differing gifts is to build one another up. We even have explicit instructions about this: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV).

Clearly, we ought to be interacting with our fellow Christians and supporting one another, but I think we should consider what this looks like. I don’t think it looks like showing up for a worship service, singing, listening to a sermon, and heading home. Those are good things to do. Corporate worship can inspire and comfort. It can help us get our hearts and minds focused on God. A good sermon will have something to teach us. But the fellowship that Paul and the author of Hebrews are talking about doesn’t happen as we sit in a congregation or watch a service online. It requires meaningful interaction with people who come to really know one another.

This meaningful interaction is the goal of the small group, and it often happens there. It can also happen in Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, even coffee or lunch with friends as long as some of the conversation is meaningful and Christ-centered. I have sometimes had the privilege of being in highly functional groups where we had the kind of fellowship that Paul and the author of Hebrews were talking about. I also have a few friends with whom conversations are almost always valuable to my walk with Christ.

Not every group or friendship results in meaningful fellowship, and I have no special answers for developing fellowship that works, but I will say that it is well worth the effort when you find it. We’re commanded to do it for our benefit, so don’t give up on people. If you don’t have effective fellowship now, keep looking.

After all, Jesus told us: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:19-20 ESV)

 

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Over the years I have come to realize that my conviction that I usually know best is not necessarily a good thing. For example, as someone who is generally accounted a good teacher, I tend to think that people should teach the way I do. One of my responsibilities as an academic department chair was to observe professors in my department in the classroom and to provide feedback. I had a lot of suggestions for improvement for some of my faculty, especially some of the newer ones, but I had to be careful. Sometimes, they really were not doing it well and needed to do things more like I would. At other times, though, they were doing things differently, but in ways that were also effective. I had to remind myself that what matters is student learning, not whether the teacher does what I would. Besides, my way won’t work for everyone. Talking to a group of computer science students about gaming is a great way for me to establish rapport, but it only works because I actually do know the computer gaming world and play some of the same games. My approach would fail miserably for many of my colleagues.

As a department chair, it was my job to try to ensure that classes were taught well. However, I also find myself wanting to give advice when it really isn’t my business at all, whether it’s encouraging my successor to do things the way I did them or getting someone to fold the towels correctly. I know I’m not alone. Why do people care how other people hang their toilet paper? It’s their toilet paper in their house: let them hang it the way they want. But most of us are firmly convinced that we know which way is right, and we believe that everyone else should do it our way.

This tendency to want other people to do things our way shows up in our religion as well. When some event or Bible study or worship song has been especially meaningful to us, we think everyone should experience that in exactly the same way. In college, I had a Sunday School class that did a verse-by-verse study of James that was very meaningful to me, and I still feel like everyone should have that kind of experience with the book of James. But I’m wrong about that, because God made other people who respond differently and need different means to learn those lessons.

Of course, we don’t just want people to do things our way. Too often we want God to do it our way. We want him to treat us fairly, by which we often mean all the same. We want everyone’s uncle with cancer to be healed. We don’t understand why that woman is well-off while her sister struggles to make ends meet.

But Christianity is not supposed to be a cookie cutter religion where everyone has the exact same experience.

Jesus addresses this issue a couple of times. In Matthew 20, he tells a story about the vintner who needs workers and hires some people in the morning, agreeing to pay them each a denarius, which was a standard day’s wage at the time. Those people work, but more are wanted and the owner hires additional workers at various points throughout the day, including some who work just one hour. There is no agreement made with all of these additional laborers. When the end of the day comes, the workers are paid starting with those who worked the least, and everyone receives a full denarius. This is not okay with the ones who had actually made an agreement to work all day for the denarius.

Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ (Matthew 20:10-15 ESV)

I think Jesus is trying to make it clear that what God chooses to do with and for someone else is really none of my concern.

He makes a similar point after foretelling the manner of Peter’s death. 

When Peter saw [John], he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:21-22 ESV)

Jesus is not interested in explaining his work in someone else’s life to me. He is interested in my obedience and in giving me all the experiences I need for growth. I should share my experiences with others, so that God can use them in their lives, but I should not be surprised or disappointed when God works differently in their lives than he does in mine.

 

Image by  Kevin Phillips from Pixabay

A former pastor of my church used to frequently say that people should quit spending their time studying the Bible and instead start doing what they already know that it says. Now, he was making a valid point—there’s little use in Bible knowledge that does not result in action. It’s the same point James makes: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22 ESV).

However, I take issue with my former pastor’s advice, because he was setting up a false dichotomy between studying the word of God and acting out the word of God. Even worse, when we say that we should do what the Bible says instead of spending time in the Bible, we ignore the power of Biblical truth to change our behavior if we cooperate with it.

The Bible describes itself this way: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV). This means that the Bible not just a passive bank of knowledge that we can look into and learn as we choose. It has power and the ability to change us.

This theme of scripture as able to influence action appears in several places. As Joshua begins his leadership of Israel, God tells him, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it” (Joshua 1:8a ESV). The psalmist declares, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you,” (Psalm 119:11 ESV). Just before his statement that we need to be doers of the word and not just hearers, James instructs his readers to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21b ESV).

Scripture is powerful. It can guard us from sin. It can help us to do the right thing. Its truth saves us. But, for that to actually happen, two things are required of us.

First, we really do have to act on what we know. We need to do the things that are clearly laid out for us in scripture. We need to be prepared for God to use our Bible study to prompt us to action, and we need to take those actions when that happens. We must be doers.

The good news is that acting out what we read gets easier if we do the second thing and, as intended by the author, meditate on it. Joshua wasn’t told to read through the law once; he was told to meditate on it constantly. The psalmist doesn’t talk about casual reading but about a much deeper knowledge. James refers to the implanted word.

For many years, Bible reading and study have been a part of my life. However, I have been less faithful in the area of scripture memory and meditation. I memorized a number of Bible verses as a child, as would be expected for the daughter of pastor and then a missionary, who also wanted to win the Bible sword drills at summer camp. As an adult, I’ve always had good intentions regarding memorization, but I have only intermittently followed through.

In the last several months, I’ve discovered a website for Bible memorization that actually works for me (at least so far). I’ve been working on memorizing both verses I’ve chosen and collections that others have put together on the site.

Here’s what’s great about that: as I dwell on a verse and spend time not only getting the words in my head, but also meditating on the words and their meaning, I see things that I would never see in my typical morning Bible reading. I say this with some confidence, since I hadn’t seen them the last thirty times I read the chapter. Some of that is God bringing certain things to my attention because of where I am in life and what he’s teaching me right now, but this is also a result of my spending the time and allowing the meaning to seep into the dark crevices of my heart. I am inspired to act in accordance with the truth in that scripture.  It’s no longer a matter of making myself do what I should, but rather allowing the living and active word of God to change my heart and help me do what I ought.

Let’s do what we know already, but let’s do it out of the inspiration gained through serious meditation on the word of God.

 

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