Flowers of the Field

I get asked a lot in ministry something along the lines of, "How does this apply to my life?" 

I'll hear people say, "You keep teaching the same things..."

Yes, there are (mostly) no bad questions, but there are a lot of questions that demonstrate that the ones asking have completely missed the point. That is likely a result of my own lack of clarity in teaching and a desire for teaching to do something different than I intend it to do or different than teaching in church ought to be doing.

"Application" is, in my eyes, a weak goal. We apply things and they go away, like we apply makeup or paint that chips away. Application is also only part three of the teaching theory, Bloom's Taxonomy.

Even more though, my teaching isn't about how things can be applied directly from my messages. 

What I want my teaching to get at is the roots of our mind, heart, soul, and strength. And this is only by the Spirit's workings and my feeble attempts at following the lead of God.

My answer to "How does this apply?" today is really a very simple and perhaps direct: "Figure it out." I'm exhausted of people missing the point, I don't desire to give you a three step plan to how to incorporate verses into your life. When the verse says, "In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude as Christ Jesus..." I don't think it takes a master's degree to figure out how this applies to our lives.

Are we listening?

How it "applies" is to the very core of ourselves. Let our roots be so nourished by God and his kingdom that application is only part of what we discover in a life and community named "The Lord Is There."

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, that we might have roots so shaped and embedded and nourished by and with God that our lives are flowers proclaiming the goodness of God.