This is why we should desire lifelong learning

Posted byoakhillcrossvillePosted inUncategorized
Good morning everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Lifelong learning”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
 
Our thought for today: “This is why we should desire lifelong learning”
 
Before we delve into the mechanics of lifelong learning, it will be helpful to consider why we should want it to begin with and what it is leading us to. Although there are many good reasons to be a lifelong learner, including career enhancement, developing new skills, keeping your brain strong and healthy, and more, I believe there are two reasons that are more important than the others.
 
One of those reasons was expressed nicely and musically by Jimmy Buffet when he sang “I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead.” In other words, life is better when we live it fully. Too many people shuffle through life bored and without direction. It’s as if they’re just trudging along to the grave, one step after another – just enduring life and getting through it. But an attitude of lifelong learning helps to keep us interested in life, focused and fresh. On the day I die I want to still be living fully.
 
But for the Christian there’s a more important reason to be a lifelong learner and it is expressed for us by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 (above). There he describes what he called “the fruit of the Spirit.” These are attributes of Jesus that the Holy Spirit works to develop and bring out in us. The more we learn and grow in terms of knowledge and life experience (Biblical knowledge and godly living), the more we are transformed into the image of Jesus. In other words, those attributes of Jesus progressively come to be true of us. This is what lifelong learning and continuous growth results in for the Christian. You become more like Jesus. That’s the ultimate goal.
 
There are many good reasons to be a lifelong learner, and we will discuss some of them this month. But for the Christian the two most important are to become more like Jesus, and to be fully and enthusiastically engaged in life, living every day as the gift from God that it is. An attitude of lifelong learning will help to ensure that is true of you.
 
God bless,
Pastor Jim
 
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