2020... Now What? - Pt 4

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1-2 ESV).

The grist mill was an essential part of every settlement during the pioneer days of the 1800’s. This was especially true in the mountains along the eastern side of the United States. The picture I’ve selected for today is from the Smoky Mountains. The essentials to life were simple: shelter, food, and clothing. Traveling to nearby population centers was not easy, even if they had money or good to trade for the necessities. These hardy pioneers farmed and hunted for their food. They fashioned the wood for their shelter from the plentiful supply of hardwoods in the mountains. Even much of their clothing came from the pelts and furs of the animals they trapped or hunted for their food. It was hard work to merely survive. Yet, they thrived. I believe it was in large part because of the understanding of reality. We should be conscious to what is real in our spiritual life. The world has conditioned us to measure progress in all the wrong ways. We spent twenty or more years learning a little more math, or a little more history, or a little more science, and we measured ourselves year after year by test scores and final grades. But the Christian life is not simply a Systematic Theology course. Maturity is measured by a spiritual heart monitor, not a theological Scantron. By character, not head knowledge. The means to achieve this is through prayer. Prayer is the match that lights the kindling of knowledge we’ve gathered over time. Tim Keller writes: Prayer turns theology into experience. Through it we sense his presence and receive his joy, his love, his peace and confidence, and thereby we are changed in attitude, behavior, and character. . . . Prayer is the way that all the things we believe in and that Christ has won for us actually become our strength. Prayer is the way that truth is worked into your heart to create new instincts, reflexes, and dispositions. (Prayer, 80, 132). Too often we have loved what we’ve learned about God more than God himself, and when we do, our lives remain essentially the same. We learn more and more, but never change. But if we never really change, we haven’t really known God. That is the difference between reality and perception. “Perception” is not reality when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. As the sun sets on another year, make relationship with Him your singular goal in life.