For the first several years of our marriage, my spouse and I lived in a couple of small apartments. Eventually, we finished our various degree programs, found jobs, made a move, and bought a house. It was great and wonderful to have a house, though we didn’t know much about what to do with it or how to care for it. Thankfully, we lived next door to Allen, and it became clear very quickly that Allen knew everything about how to maintain a house. Accordingly, we developed a homeowning strategy that involved watching Allen and doing what he did. If he was washing the storm windows and putting up screens, that’s what we did. If he was sealing his driveway, that’s what we did. If he was cleaning the gutters, that’s what we did. If he was fertilizing the yard, that’s what we did. We would actually get up on Saturdays, look out the window, wait for Allen to appear and start on some kind of task, then we followed suit. And it worked out very well. Our 80-year-old house stayed in good shape. We learned some things along the way and developed some skills. When we moved on after six years in that house, we even admitted to Allen what we had been doing. He smiled a disbelieving smile, befitting of someone who had been a homeowner for 40 years and to whom it all seemed second nature. I learned to swim the breaststroke by watching Stephen. The instructor had tried to tell me about how to do it. He had diagrams and directions. He would move my arms and my legs in the right way, but I really struggled with the timing of the stroke. Finally, the instructor told me to watch Stephen, who was swimming in the adjacent pool used by the high school swim team. I stood on the deck and I watched him. Then I jumped it and tried it. Then I got out and watched some more. I learned the breaststroke from Stephen, just like I learned to care for a house from Allen. We can gain much by learning from those who have experience and knowledge and skills. Watch what they do; practice what they do. I’ve learned about faith from any number of teachers over the years. I suspect you have, too. Few of us can just pick up faith on our own. We need to be around others who know something about it and have some experience, some knowledge. I enjoy being in a group and asking people to share the name of someone from whom they learned about faith. Sometimes, it’s a parent or a grandparent or a Sunday school teacher or a youth group sponsor. Sometimes it’s someone you watched because of the joyful way she sang or the patient way he cared for his children or because of the warm way they always greeted you. ...
Thank you to this week's writer John Wurster.
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