I was a clumsy kid.
How clumsy? My parents always said I could trip over the flowers in the rug. Quite often, my shoulders clipped our corners and doorframes. I was always knocking over some cup of liquid. And, if nothing else was going wrong, I could always count on knocking my fork off the table.
To be clear, most of these things didn’t last a lifetime. After a while, I learned how to pick up the front of my shoes when I walked, seriously limiting sprawling before my peers. I did eventually figure out that I could swing a bit wider than my eyes told me to when coming near these corners and portals. Result? All but eliminated that painful shoulder bruising.
Solving the problem of knocking over liquids presented more of a challenge. I couldn’t seem to cure that one. So, I developed the ability to quickly grab the container as it is still tilting over. I’ve gotten really good at this mid-spill save. You can witness my ability at almost any meal. The fork thing? Well…it’s still a thing. But I’ve narrowed down the culprit to long sleeves. Some things, I guess, are just going to remain a work in progress.
I am what a kind person would call an “experiential learner.” I make a lot of mistakes. But my errors are my tutors. I learn from my mistakes. That’s a subtlety that may be overlooked when we read this week’s James passage. James says: We don’t have because we don’t ask God for what we want. And, even when we do ask God, we don’t receive because we ask for selfish reasons.
James is talking about the problems that keep popping up when we want what already belongs to others: selfish ambition, bitter envy, contentiousness, even murder. We have gone about these things backwards. Instead of coveting and then fighting to get what we desire, we should go to God with our wants, needs, and desires.
Plus, we can apply the correct process (ask God), but still not receive it because we are only asking for selfish reasons. We need to realize that asking God to give us something that already belongs to someone else is never going to work.
Turns out: there is a right way and a wrong way to ask. And we can learn that right way.
We are to ask while in the presence of God. That means we are to be praying and listening, being still before God. And, if we ask while living the Golden Rule—seeking for others what we wish for ourselves—we will receive. As promised.
Finally, it’s okay if we struggle with this a bit. We’re unlikely to excel at this when we first begin. It’s okay to fail. Seriously, it’s okay. We just need to fail better. Our errors can be our tutors.
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PHOTO: Adobe Express and Photoshop Express
What are you doing Friday morning? Can you join us at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in the function room at Our Breakfast Place. It’s an hour like no other. We come away refreshed and fortified.
Blessings,
Steve
**Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=382&z=p&d=76
Print them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Bx_Proper20.pdf
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
Jeremiah 11:18-20
Psalm 54
James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
Proper 20 (25) (September 22, 2024)
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