Understanding Understanding

First things first, the title is not a typo.

I suddenly felt like expounding on what we have discussed during our life group this afternoon. I’m determined to keep this short “so as not to take much more of your time” (MPD presentation hangover).

Okay, here goes.

Understanding Understanding is, somehow, inspired by last week’s MAJOR, MAJOR trending topic on Twitter and Facebook.

(The word understanding here is defined as the the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.)

I first asked the girls to define “understanding” in their own words. Probably because they are faced with much more complex words, ideas, and concepts in school, it took them quite a few minutes to come up with answers.

I then told them the story of how something dawned on me last Monday. I was in a training with Pastor Chinkee Tan as our facilitator. After discussing a particular idea, he asked a very common question: “Do you understand?”

My reflexes moved me to utter the word “Yes” and then in a split second I asked again. Do I really understand?

I looked at all of them and saw in their faces that they knew what I was talking about.

Many times, we have said yes to this question either because the standard answer is yes or because we just want the person asking us to get on with the discussion. Sometimes we say yes not because we understand what was being talked about but simply because we understood the question. And because we know what the question means, we answer it according to how it should be answered.

When we ask random people if they pray, most of them would say yes. The question is, do they understand why they pray or why they must pray?

When we ask random people if they believe in God, most of them would say yes. But do they understand what believing in God entails?

When we ask random people if they believe in what the bible says, a good number would say yes. But do they understand that when we believe in what the Bible says, it would follow that we are to DO what it says?

Proverbs 3:5 tells us how to address “understanding” dilemmas.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Human reasoning would most likely fail to fully grasp the truth in the faith that we have but TRUST breaks through everything we call logical. In the end, it’s all about trusting God unwaveringly. Trusting God with all of our hearts means we read the Bible because we recognize it as Him talking to us, we pray because we are certain that when we talk He hears us, and we believe in Him because we know that He is alive and real.

Okay, I’m not sure if this fits your category of short but I did try.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

There will come a time when we would feel like where we are is not where we’re supposed to be. It may be a relationship that looks and feels wrong in every way, a circumstance that we completely dislike (if not abhor), or a job that isn’t exactly what we’ve dreamed of.

I believe the servants in the Parable of the Talents can very much relate to this.

I found the definition of a servant to be this – one who is privately employed to perform “domestic” services. And when you say domestic that would most likely refer to routinary chores that one does within his/her employer’s household or property.

There is someone who comes to our house thrice a week to do the laundry and some random household duties. My Mom has eventually created a more or less fixed schedule of her daily assignments and in a matter of days, everything has become a routine for her.

I’d imagine the three servants in Matthew 25:14-30 had their own share of tasks in the household. They had become too familiar with what they had to do every single day up until their master decided to go on a journey and entrusted his property to them (v14).

We all know how the story goes but I’d quote the verses anyway.

“15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with two talents gained two mroe. 18 But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”

There are two things I want to point out:

1. Every circumstance that God allows to happen in our lives is NEVER beyond our abilities.

I like how the The Message Bible translation says this: “…he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit (1 Corinthians 10:13)”. So whatever it is that you are going through right now, you are just in the right place at the right time – no matter how wrong everything may seem to you.

2. Testing comes before promotion.

The corporate ladder is labeled as such because there are steps that you would have to take in order for you to get to the top. I remember having to go through trainings, tests, and evaluations before I got promoted to Senior Copywriter, Head Writer, and then to Department Supervisor back when I was still employed.

Notice how the master, seeing that the two servants were able to make good use of the talents entrusted to them (despite the fact that they were not really trained to take care of and invest talents), said “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. (v21, 23). This is exactly what will happen when we become faithful with whatever is entrusted to us – even when we are not trained to do it, even when it is beyond our routine, and even when it is something we do not like to do.

Simply stated – we are to bloom where we are planted. We are to be a blessing even when circumstances are undesirable. We cannot just hide or run away from what God has entrusted for us to do because it’s not what we do best or because it’s not what we want to do. His grace is enough, remember?

Bloom where you are planted. God knows that the soil where you are now is the soil that’s best for you. Just bloom where you are planted.

Of Faith and Mountains

Matthew 17:20 has always been comforting. “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move form here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I have, ever since, been praying for my faith to get stretched out enough for me to make and see mountains move ( you may or may not take that literally). But after having attended three services at three different venues (naks, religious ba? ) and hearing three different but equally powerful versions of the preaching about God being our El Shaddai, I have come to fully understand how the God I am serving is not only one who can grant me faith that is mountain-moving but the God of the Mountains Himself.

El Shaddai – My God is the God Almighty

Genesis 17: 1 – “…I am God Almighty.”

He is the God who provides, my comforter, my redeemer, my rock, my stronghold. The list of who and what God is to me can go on and on. And these have appeared so many times in the songs that I write. But all of these, all of the characteristics of God that I know of has just been summed up to this – - He is THE God Almighty. He is all-powerful. He is all-sufficient. God can be anything for us if He is everything to us. God can be anything for us because He is our everything.

El Shaddai – My God is the God of the Mountains

Abraham was tested in Mt. Moriah so he can experience God’s provision.

Noah ended up in Mt. Ararat and saw the extent of God’s protection and salvation.

Moses was in Mt. Horeb when He received God’s calling. He had to climb Mt. Sinai to receive God’s revelation.

Elijah was on top of a mountain when he battled it out against the prophets of Baal and saw the fire of God fall down from heaven.

Jesus was crucified in Golgotha and the whole mankind was redeemed from their sins.

We sometimes get so consumed with the idea that our God is a mountain-mover (well, i’m not saying He’s not) and somehow miss the fact that even Jesus had to climb all the way to the top of a hill in order for salvation to be granted to all mankind. Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Elijah had to climb their own mountains and experienced the fullness of the power of God when they were on top of it.

My point? You can always ask God to move your mountains but sometimes, greater revelation comes when you choose to climb the mountain and be on top of it.

Psalm 43:3 Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell.

Quotes from the Recently Concluded MPD Training

The words that you use determine how you think.

It is common to lose Jesus while we go about our religious duties.

We cannot ask people to do something we are unwilling to do ourselves.

Money is not my God. The economy is not my source.

The giver is always more important than the gift.

Never let your pride get in the way of your ministry.

God will never fail you.

God is pleased that you are embracing a life of faith.

Everything is all about God and your calling.

The enemy will try to steal your calling from you.