Real Learning

Throughout our lives we hear this term cramming.  You know putting things together at the last minute to try to pull off a successful project or exam score.  When in the long run the benefits of actually learning the material is the better idea.  This is especially true when it comes to prerequisite courses.

I think this happens to us when it comes to church as well.  We spend each Sunday sitting in our seats, hearing the message, but do we apply it?  We spend all this time, "hearing" the message, but when it comes to applying it to our lives its missing.  In order for us to be true Christians we must be applying what we are learning to our lives.

Conference Time!

So I missed Catalyst this year...What a bummer.  However I was at a different leadership conference of sorts this weekend.  I was at SWACUHO.  A conference designated for Resident Assistants from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

We go to conferences to learn things.  I'm sure that if I had gone to Catalyst I would have learned some pretty phenomenal things.  I know I learned some pretty great things pertaining to my job by attending SWACUHO..

However, with many conferences we attend, listen, and then forget.  To this I say, what's the point?  Granted I will forget things about the conference that I just attended.  But, I do have ideas for pretty much every door dec I'm going to have to do from now until December, written down, and ready to be made, which is pretty great.

So why then would we attend a conference and then forget everything we learned?

I think it has something to do with the culture we live in today.  When we feel like we can access the knowledge that we learned at a conference at any time, online, we are less likely to remember it.

But there are also things that require real life application.  I believe we are unwilling to apply these new ideas because we don't want to have to work any harder than we already do.  We live in a culture that is all about what makes you comfortable which spells failure for new ideas typically.

We want to change but then when we get to the point to where change needs to happen, we decide to do something that is "more fun" instead of changing.

I believe we need to change our mindset in order to gain ultimate knowledge from a conference.  I will try to expound on this thought later this week.

Decisions: Application

As followers of Christ we feel an inherent need to please Christ.  After all if we did not feel this need then we would probably need to reconsider whether or not we are truly followers of Him.

At the core, pleasing Christ comes through our decision making.  If we are pleasing Christ with out decisions then we are not sinning and we are enacting life change in ourselves and others.

So how do we begin in seeking Christ in our decision making?  We must first be willing to abandon ourselves to those decisions that Christ has planned for us.  Then we must listen for those plans.  This is where the prayer and supplication comes into action.  God guides our decisions through other means of communication with Him, however if we are not grounded in prayer then we will question whether we are doing what we want or what Christ wants.

You may sit back and think, Christ making decisions for me; that's crazy.  However I can tell you from first hand experience as well as second hand stories that following Christ direction is a real thing.  Not only can his confirmation of decisions come through prayer, it can also come through scripture, worship, communication with other believers, and communication with nonbelievers as well.

I say all of this knowing full well that this is something that I myself need to work on.  Most of the time when I blog about things, they are thoughts that apply to myself, and I feel the need to share.