What Are You Going to Apply to Your Life? Nothing.

There is always an application question, right?  A good teacher will ask, “What have you learned today?”  No small group study is complete without the question “What things in this study apply to your life?”  Every seminar, training, conference, lecture or training begs the question “What changes are you going to implement after having learned these things?”  Imagine if everyone in the lecture hall turned to the teacher and said, “Nothing.”

Tom & friends at a meal

For the last few months I’ve been studying with some men I know.  Each week we have a good discussion.  We probe the passage, we think about the meaning.  We think about humanity, good and bad, lies and truths, and at some point we get to the application question and for four straight weeks, in answer to the question, “What can you apply to your life?”, one man has told me, “Nothing.”  

Why does he say, “Nothing”?  You can probably figure it out.  He doesn’t agree with the things we are discussing.  He sees things differently.  So he is happy to talk about the subject and share some deep thoughts, but when it comes to applying things to his life, he is a stone.  He wants none of it.  I can’t help but look at myself and be challenged by that.

It is easy to write him off and say that he is foolish and stubborn.  But am I any different?  Are we?  If I were listening to something I didn’t agree with, isn’t it my temptation to say the same.  “This is rubbish.  I don’t agree with it.  There is nothing for me to learn from this.  I certainly don’t want to apply it to my life.”  Don’t we all do the same thing most of the time?  It is a foolish and stubborn thing to do.  Yet, so often we all respond this way.  Shut down. Shut off.  Conversation ends here.  

Friends studying at English Club

But aren’t we called to something more?  
What if we believed there was always something to learn—always something to apply to our lives?  How would that change our conversations?  How would it look to respect another opinion enough to continue to engage with it?  How much more might we learn?

It strikes me that, even if we say that the things to apply to our lives are the opposite of what is being presented we can still draw applications.  For example, if I make a forceful argument on why you should hate others, you might be repulsed by my teaching.  You might find it deplorable.  But you can still find something to apply—perhaps it is “I will do the opposite. I will love instead of hate.”  But if you shut down, turn off and take nothing away, then maybe you have missed an opportunity.  You may have been able to grow in your appreciation of love, by the contrast.

So why can my friend study diligently for an hour and then say in terms of application, “Nothing”?  Why do we do the same?  I think it is fear.  We fear other ideas. We fear what it might demand of us—especially in terms of application because application is about change.  And we fear change—especially in our own hearts.  Change means there is something that needs to be corrected, and we hate being corrected.  We hate admitting we are wrong.  In fact, I think generally we hate application questions.  Don’t we usually look for the most vague and abstract application possible.  “We should love more.”  “We should be kind to people.”  Nice and vague and easy enough to not really do nor bring about real change.  No we don’t like clear application, correction or change.  So we shut down, shut off, end the conversation and conclude there’s nothing that applies.

I recently came across a verse in Proverbs that gets to the heart of this quite bluntly,

“Whoever loves correction loves knowledge.  Whoever hates correction is stupid.” (Proverbs 12:1)
Don’t we all tend to be stupid?  

 Maybe the next time I’m tempted to be stupid, I’ll think of my friend and how sad it has made me every time he has said, “Nothing.” Maybe it will help my heart to be a little softer, a little less stupid.  Maybe you can think of him too.

Our boys back to school

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our short-termer has finally tested negative for COVID! Her time with us will now only be two weeks but we are hopeful that we can give her a good taste of island culture and some principles for language learning that will hopefully help her as she goes to work on the French Island in December. Our boys have started school! The back-to-school day was a lot more organized this year and not as much of an ordeal as it has been in the past. The first couple days have gone smoothly. Our medical teammates have had a good first week in their new house/town and are already making some good connections with people there. Megan was able to go to visit them today and her back seems to have tolerated the bumpy roads okay. Our teammate has made it back safely to the islands. Unfortunately she was unable to fly to Clove Island today as planned because her baggage didn’t arrive with her! But thankfully today she got word that her bags have arrived and she will be able to make it back to us tomorrow!  Over the weekend, we explored higher up a river we have been to numerous times and discovered some amazing waterfalls and pools— we are thankful that even after several years, Clove Island still has beautiful surprises for us.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the man mentioned in today’s blog and others who have closed their hearts to change. Pray for our good friend “Fakhadi”. Tom usually meets with him each week and he usually attends our English Club each week, but we haven’t seen him in many weeks. We’re not sure what is going on with him, but we are concerned. Pray that Tom would be able to make contact with him and that he isn’t getting into things that he shouldn’t. Pray for our short-termer as she is having trouble redeeming the ticket she had to cancel for a flight this week. Pray that she would make it to us without any more difficulties and that her short time with us would prepare her well for her work on the French Island. One of our colleagues on the islands has been planning to travel back to her home country for months, only to test positive for COVID. Pray for her physical health (that she would have a mild case), but also for her spirits as this is a discouraging blow to what had already been stressful planning. As part of our organization’s leadership training, Tom is taking an online seminar this week and next (6 days, 3.5 hours each day). This is being added into an already busy schedule. Pray that Tom would see the applications to the training and that he would have the energy throughout to appreciate it. Several island brothers and sisters have been sent to mainland Africa for some meetings— pray for the learning and discussions had there and for fruitful reflections on what God is doing on the islands.