Read the Directions!

My teenage daughter bought a new phone this week. She got a great deal on a high-tech phone with features none of our phones have ever had. Within minutes of her purchase and without reading any directions, she began taking pictures with her phone, sending text messages, and customizing her ringtones. If it had been me, I would still have been trying to figure out how to make a call or answer one.

But she is not yet afraid of learning by trial and error. (We've had to cancel one phone number because she accidentally activated features we did not enjoy paying extra for!) But aren't we all a bit like that? Give us the "need to know" info.--right now. Don't bore us with the details or ask us to read the directions.

That is, until something goes wrong. Or it doesn't work right.

I've searched my entire house for the directions to the vacuum cleaner--after it wasn't working properly. That neat little package of instructions usually gets thrown into a drawer (if kept at all) in all the excitement of a new tool, toy, or appliance.

At the start of a new school and work year, I have decided to read the directions. Before something goes wrong. I am carefully reading (err...at least skimming) student/parent handbooks, course syllabi, teacher hand-outs, and endless school forms.

I have been searching for spiritual direction as well. Something to start the year with. God has been gracious to provide two tangible sets of instructions for me this week. One in Paul's final instructions to Timothy and one in Proverbs.

2 Timothy 2:22 (NLV)
"Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that makes you want to do right. Pursue faith, love, and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts."

Proverbs 21:21 (NLV)
"Whoever pursues godliness and unfailing love will find life, godliness, and honor."

These words spoke to me in a few specific ways. I have been desiring a specific blueprint for my life, I guess. Something concrete to focus on, the way I focused in on my graduate work. Paul told Timothy to "follow anything" that made him want to do right.

It was a good reminder to me that God is concerned about who I am while I tend to be more concerned about what I do. Performance is a strong driver for me. And it can be a chain.

I have been pursuing godliness and hoping that unfailing love would be an outcome. I have been rather disappointed that my love sometimes fails over the most trivial of circumstances. The proverb above states that I must pursue both.

It is a great encouragement that the verse also says that the pursuer of godliness will find godliness. It is not a hopeless pursuit!

As I continue my journey to live spiritually in the everyday dramas of my life, I have some directions:

"Follow anything that makes you want to do right." (run from the rest)

"Pursue godliness AND unfailing love."

"Pursue faith and love and peace."

"Enjoy the companionship of those...with pure hearts."

If you are tired of learning by trial and error. Of finding out your mistake the hard way. And you have been humbled and broken enough to admit it...then join another humbled hard-head and read the directions!

With love--Becky