What Has the Lord Been Teaching You?

I listened to a short little interview of Abraham Piper and found his experience to be mine on this particular issue:

The interviewer asks: "What has God been teaching you over the last year?"

Abraham responds: "That's kind of a funny question I think because..is there a difference between what God has been teaching me and what I've been thinking about and what I've been learning? "

My feelings exactly.

I have been asked the same question and it always makes me feel odd and even squirm-ily uncomfortable because what I think is being asked seems to be a query anticipating a more supernaturally subjective response then I can give. For me, what God has been teaching me is something I have thought about or read in a book or in my Bible or a situation be it circumstantial or relational in my life. My interview would go something like this:

Question: "What has God been teaching you over the last year?"

Answer: "Hebrews" (Not as in the people-group, but as in the Epistle to the Hebrews)

No, not real super-spiritual, but then again, it is quite spiritual because it is the breath of the Holy Spirit through the inspired and unknown writer-preacher of the epistle.

What I'm thinking though is that what the questioner wants is something like this:

"I arose yesterday morning from the depths of sleep and as I arrived at the office and sat at my desk at 6:35 am suddenly I had this incredible sensation of warmth as piercing white light shot into the room (not through my TV) and I was hit by the wind of Holy Spirit and God spoke and said: 'BJ, your sins have been forgiven by Jesus my Son. He is the faithful high priest who fulfills my intention for the priesthood and is in the line of Melchizedek. Therefore you now have mediated and unhindered access into my very presence. As He is my Son, so you are my son.'"

Now, thats a bit satirical, but I think you get what I am saying.

It's good to know I'm not alone in the 'funny'-ness of the question Abraham was asked.

It is also good to know that God does teach people in the dramatic moments of life and the everyday grind. The sad thing is that we treat the everyday things God is teaching us as if its just everyday, not real important, not real spiritual. May we be certain that what God speaks in His Scriptures is never "normal." It is by its nature "supernatural" and what God prompts in your heart and mind in the circumstances of life, the conversations with friends, the sins and successes of the everyday is His teaching.

If your at all like me, don't feel like you must give a St. Paul-knocked-off-His-ass experience, and if your the questioner don't despise the day of small things and only expect those kind of answers.