Introduction—-Slow Learners

It may seem strange that, while I am a Wisconsin native and a Yankee through and through, my mother was a Southern Bell from Georgia.  If you think Georgia women are helpless softies, go back and watch Gone with the Wind again.   Mom was a pretty independent and capable woman who had taught school, worked in her family shoe business then married my Dad and raised four children.  When Dad died, she was well equipped to meet the practical everyday challenges of life.  However, there were a few things that she had never done because they were my Dad's jobs.  For example, she had never put gasoline in the car.  Mom grew up in the era of the full-service station.  You'd pull your car up to the pump, a man in uniform would come up and ‘fill 'er up’, check your oil and wash your window all for less than 30 cents a gallon.  But in the 1990’s, in South Florida at least, it was almost impossible to find any gas station other than self-service.  For years, my Mom would call me up every couple weeks and ask me to give her a lesson on how to put gas in the car.  I'd come over, and we'd drive her car to the local Shell.  I would show her how to swipe the credit card.  I'd demonstrate how to remove (and later replace) the gas cap.  She would practice putting the nozzle in the opening and squeezing the handle until she heard the click.  “Always get the receipt,” I admonished her.  When I was hovering over her, she was able to put the gas in the car.  By the end of the next fortnight, however, she would have completely forgotten our previous experience, and we'd have to start over again from scratch.   She had to learn the gas-pumping lesson over and over again.  Eventually, after about 10 years, she finally mastered the self-serve pump.  She put gas in her car all by herself!

Well as they say, like mother like daughter.  It seems to me that in life I am always going back and relearning something I have already learned.  I have a great memory for some things (trivia and song lyrics) but other things (phone numbers and people's names) I have to keep repeating until they stick with me. Review seems to be a necessary survival skill for me.  Repetition is essential in my relationship with God.  Truths that I learned as a new Christ follower have been discovered over and over again for the past almost 50 years.  Not that I have intellectually forgotten them.  For example, I know that God loves me.  In fact, I could quote you chapter and verse to prove it.  But what I need is “practical recollection.” When faced with an overwhelming disappointment, is my first response, “God loves me beyond measure, so I will thank Him for the good that will come out of this situation?”  Maybe one time out of ten.  Likewise, I'm convinced that God created me as a wonderfully unique person. But when someone comes along with a high level of competency in my field of “expertise,” am I excited about having someone to spur me on to greater things?  No way!  I compare myself to other people, then feel sorry for myself or subtly pick apart their performance, so I feel better.  But there is hope.  Sometimes my first thought, when things go wrong, is God loves me and has this under control.  Some days I can appreciate others' gifts without denigrating my own.  As radio pastor Steve Brown likes to say, “I’m not as bad as I used to be.  Be patient with me God is not finished with me yet.”

I may be a slow learner, but I am encouraged when I read the Bible.  It is full of slow learners, full of people who had to learn the same lessons over and over again.  Take God's friend, Abraham, for example.  Early in his walk with God, he took a trip down to Egypt. Abraham must have been humming the old tune, If You Want to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life, Never Make a Pretty Woman Your Wife.  He was sure Pharaoh would bump him off to marry his beautiful wife, Sarah. Abraham told the Pharaoh that Sarah was merely his sister. He figured this lie would protect him.   Instead, it led to a big mess (as lies always do).  But God graciously rescued him.  Years later, after just seeing the mighty power of God destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham ran into King Abimelech.  Abraham told Abimelech the same lie he had told to Pharaoh years before with the same disastrous results.  Once again God saved him from his stupidity.  My skeptical Old Testament professor would have said the duplication of this story reveals the multiplicity of authors of the Pentateuch. Repetition proves that the Bible is merely a man-made book.  Bologna!  If men were solely responsible for the Bible, they would never have included a story like this that shows the founding father of Israel in such a bad light; much less have put it in twice!  This story of Abraham's repeated failure proves to me that God is the ultimate author of the Bible.  He knows we are but dust and that we often need to be reminded of that.  He knows we all repeatedly fail including Abraham, the man who was the greatest example of faith.  “Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises.” (Romans 15:4, NLT)

As you can see, I am not writing as someone who knows all the answers or just thinks they do. (Don't those people just irritate you.)  I am writing as one who struggles.  One who knows that God won't give up on me even though I often want to quit.  But in many years of walking with Jesus, I have learned, relearned and continue to learn a few basic life lessons that have enabled me to keep going.  This book is not for those who want “the deep truths.”  It is for those who long to know more deeply the One who is the Truth. It is to encourage average, ordinary people that we have a spectacular, amazing God.  After all, as my friend Kathy Caprio always says, “It’s all about God. It’s not about me.”

Just a word about the format of the book.  The 10 Life Lessons are divided up into shorter segments meant to be read one a day at a time.  At the end of each day's reading is a section called “Learning the Lesson”.  This section is to help you digest and apply what you have been reading.  If you want to learn these 10 Life Lessons, limit yourself to reading just one section a day and take the time to think about the questions asked.  If one section isn't clear, I hope you will feel free to read it again the next day before moving on.  After all, these are 10 Life Lessons Worth Learning Over and Over Again.                                                                                     

I am initially publishing this book on the Internet during Lent 2020.  I am hoping that believers from all over the country and perhaps all over the world will use these Life Lessons to prepare their hearts for celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Including this introduction, I have 33 segments in the book.  I will post one a day on this website which means that there will be a segment to read each weekday during the between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  Since I am not posting on Saturdays or Sundays, readers will be able to catch up or re-read a segment during that day.  

Please post comments letting me and other readers know how God is using these Life Lessons in your life. I will moderate the comments to avoid spam and other unedifying observations but I will include comments from thoughtful readers that disagree with me and especially from those of you that have insights I have not considered.