The idea of study is a very familiar subject to me as a full time student in my fifth year of college, and is accompanied by lots of experience both successful and unsuccessful. However, in my many years of upper education I have very seldom experienced joy as an outcome of my studying. Yes, on seldom occasions I would feel happiness as a result of a good grade after a major test, but never did I really experience true joy until this past semester. As part of my degree in Dance Science I am required to take a physiology class, which, if you have never taken one or heard about a physiology class it is about a lifetimes worth of information into 4 months of study. After weeks of studying for my first test and as the anxiety and overwhelming amount of material suddenly washed over me as I walked out of the lecture hall, I began to think about the material I had absorbed as I walked across campus. After being tested on the four types of tissues in the human body and their specific functions/characteristics I looked down at my own hands and was awestruck. The material I had been cramming into my brain for weeks suddenly clicked and became applicable to my own body. The functions and characteristics I learned about and had memorized for weeks was not simply some far off explanation of a universe billions of miles away. Instead the material I had been studying was myself and my own beautifully crafted flesh by the creator of the universe. And then as I continued to move through campus the reality behind the truth that I not only was studying my own flesh, but the flesh of Jesus hit me. The incarnation of God into flesh. MY SAME FLESH! WOO! Man, that was the moment that my studying of the human body changed drastically.
Even though this happened months ago now, I wanted to share this experience with you all because this realization, this discover lead to a true joy in me that propels me event to this day. Both in my study at Long Beach and with God, because honestly there is no difference. I am a kinesthetic learner and this application to physically touch, learn about, and experience life in the same flesh as Emmanuel! This study, any study, ALL STUDY continues to produce an unbelievable joy in my life. I love reliving this experience and remembering the emotion I felt that day walking across campus and trying to begin my time with God in the mornings with that set of eyes. To start my study with eyes of both observation of God's physical creation and the desire to know my heavenly Father more by learning the truth about His story. The truth has, is, and will set me free.
"Simplicity is freedom...Simplicity brings joy and balance." (80)
"Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things." (81)
The idea of my own crazy attachment to things has become evident and prominent in my life over the past year. Even as I sit and type, I am surround by drawers full of clothes I haven't worn in months, or books I have never read, even as I begin to search for a new car the idea of excess luxury options creates a tension against the need for a vehicle that gets me from point A to point B. But the fun thing about becoming more aware in the past year or so of my excess has led me to see the actual small amount of things I need on a daily basis to live. I love that as I continue to clean out old clothes and get rid of possessions I haven't touched in months, I experience a snowball effect of discovering how much more stuff I don't need. As my eyes turn more directly toward my Father who loves, gives me gifts, cares for me, protects me and provides for me I discover the freedom from severing my attachment to things. I hear the phrase circling in my head, "using people to love things or using things to love people." (thank you super ultra!)
I echo Foster's prayer at the end of the chapter, "May God give you-and me-the courage, wisdom, the strength always to hold to the kingdom of God as the number one priority of our lives. To do so is to live in simplicity." (95) To do so is to experience abundant freedom and surrender as I stand arms outstretched running home into my Fathers arms.
Man, Jenn, thanks for this. I was so encouraged by your description of study and the revelation you had about Jesus inhabiting the same flesh you had studied so diligently. It's so cool when the discipline of 'study' expands outside of just studying the Bible or other explicitly 'Christian'/'religious' works. I love seeing God's handprint on my psych classes - the way our brains are so clearly programmed for relationship with our Father - as well as ling classes - the way language makes possible and facilitates depth of relationship.
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Jen that was awesome! My first thought was if I had thought like that back in high school about study and the human body I would have been a much better student and school would have made much more sense! Thanks for sharing. Real encouraging!
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