You are in class, you know? Life is like being in class. We have the opportunity to constantly be learning and we certainly have our periodic tests! Put things in the right perspective, our creator – God’s, who created us with a mission in mind. He didn’t gift us with life to just be the best Mario Brothers game player on earth. He didn’t create us to make millions of dollars playing sports and to be self-absorbed. He didn’t make us to focus on our pains and aggravations and to share them with everyone. He created us with love and with a mission to be a better person, loving and contributing to the good of others. We don’t always know in the beginning what our purpose is but when life is over the material will have no value, the spiritual will.
So how do we find out what our mission is? Connect with the source, God. There are many ways of doing that but prayer is typically the best way. After all, prayer is nothing more than a conversation with God. If you haven’t talked with Him for a while than you might feel a bit sheepish or guilty about calling Him up. You will likely be harder on yourself than He will be. He will be glad to hear from you. Prayer is how He takes attendance in class. He knows you can’t be learning spiritually, if you’re not attending class/praying. Just like when we attended grade school and high school, there were many subjects to learn about. The same applies to what we learn in prayer. He will talk to us about all kinds of things if we are there to listen. I know being of the “I” persuasion (expressive) that I probably frustrate Him at times because I can be on the “send” mode a lot. But He demonstrates patience. Sometimes I am looking for an answer to a situation and haven’t fully taken in the lesson because I am trying to do things my way. There’s an old saying that goes, “The obvious isn’t obvious until it’s obvious.” That certainly applies to my inability to find a solution sometimes because there He is with the answer and I haven’t listened to Him to give it to me. When He does, I might be amazed at how obvious the answer really was! Or, I just might be amazed with the fact the solution isn’t anything I had even considered.
Have you ever been bored with a class or an instructor? Because of that attitude you paid little attention and didn’t really feel like you were getting anything out of the class. Then years later you have an experience and you think to yourself, “what was that I heard in class years ago and now I really need to apply it to my current situation?” It’s really a good idea to listen to God always in all ways. But skipping class will cause us to miss the lesson.
Here are some learning tips: Pray, every day. Do it when you get up. Do it when you go to bed. Have conversations with Him any time of day and make it frequent. Before long you can hear Him in most everything. Here’s a funny. Sometimes you will realize He must be laughing at you (or with you) because you can sense a spiritual presence and you know you have to be entertaining Him because of your own silliness or foolishness. That’s funny! Go to Mass. The highest form of prayer is to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist. He and you meld together in a spiritual sort of way that is otherwise unmatchable. Sing praises to Him. Singing doesn’t just have to happen in church but while you are driving down the road, taking a shower, singing with the little ones. Singing is a high form of praise and it’s amazing how He will communicate to you when you sing. Read the scriptures. After all, the scriptures are God’s word spoken through many over time. Just open up to any book and chapter and start reading. He will speak to you in a way that will provide some insights to your current life. Go to a Bible study because sometimes the scripture may not be clear but He will speak through someone else sharing what they hear God saying and the light may go on for you.
Education is a full time endeavor. God’s mission doesn’t stop for you because you are now out of college or because your children have graduated and moved out or because you have retired from the work force. Class goes on every day because your spiritual mission doesn’t end until you go home to the Lord. You know that old saying, “you can’t take it with you when you die”, meaning that trailer full of belongings you plan on attaching to the hearse. So what is the value of skipping class and learning about the physical life when it’s the spiritual lessons that you will be tested on? Now I know everyone is really, really busy, but really? Is our busyness really the higher priority? It is OK to be busy especially when what we do supports the mission that God has created for us. I can bet that the Mother Theresa’s of the world make us “busy” people look like we are lazy. I will also bet you that their communication with God also makes us look like we are rocks, incapable of communication. Wow! That’s a vision. Me, a rock!?! Do we need to do what Mother Theresa did? NO! That is most likely not our mission. But tuning into God consistently will lead you to your lesson and your mission. Let us not be school drop outs but rather strive to be all that He made us to be. Go for the PhD! I can’t wait for graduation!