Posture Problem: Sharing at the Expense of Learning
Challenges to Living by God's Word (Week 3/4)
Hey! Two things:
This week, we’re continuing a mini-series on challenges to living by God’s Word. I’m reading through a work of Pastoral Theology by Albert N. Martin and have been encouraged by voices from the past that he has brought to bear, which have worked their way into this month of newsletters. Parts are geared toward vocational ministers and pastors; if that’s not you, hang in. There is plenty of meat on the bone and questions to consider.
Last weekend, I preached through Jonah 2, looking at his prayer while in the belly of the fish. You can watch it here.
On to this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading!
MK
Posture Problem: Sharing at the Expense of Learning
“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.” Ernest Hemingway
When I love something, I want you to know about it. Even more so, I want you to enjoy it like I do. Whether it be the lyrics that pricked my heart, the meal that made my night, or what the Lord showed me in the Scriptures this morning, I want to share it with you.
But am I sharing too soon?1
There is something right and good about rejoicing in beauty with others. However, we short ourselves in the sharing. Sharing too quickly robs of the joy of knowing more deeply. Social media has fostered this impulse in ways we may not expect.
I often ask myself, “You’re sharing this, but are you sharing too quickly? Are you growing content with the snippet of truth over the depth of learning the truth afforded to you?”
Here are two scenarios from my life:
I scan Instagram, share or save posts, feel like I grasp the point, pocket my phone, and go on. Later, I check to see if anyone engaged with the post, which triggers a dopamine loop to affirm my agreement with the post.
I sit down with the Scriptures to engage the text. The Holy Spirit meets me in the text and gives me eyes to see something about God’s character and my hope in Christ. I can default too quickly to pastor mode, beginning to think through ways to share what I’ve found with someone and how I might communicate it. My eyes move from my first role as God’s child to my second role as pastor. My posture moves from learner to educator, from recipient of life to dispenser of wisdom, and now I’m studying for a lesson to teach instead of learning what I’m being taught.
In his 1830 work, The Christian Ministry, Charles Bridges addresses this postural problem. While he addresses it to the pastor, this temptation exists in every heart: to think we are farther along than we are, to believe we’ve mastered a truth when we are ever beginners in the things of God.
This difficulty springs out of the peculiar self-deception, by which we are apt to merge our personal in our professional character, and in the Minister to forget the Christian. But time must be found for the spiritual feeding upon Scriptural truths, as well as for a critical investigation of their meaning, or for a Ministerial application of their message. For if we should study the Bible more as Ministers than as Christians-more to find matter for the instruction of our people, than food for the nourishment of our own souls; we neglect to place ourselves at the feet of our Divine Teacher; our communion with him is cut off; and we become mere formalists in our sacred profession. Mr. Martyn seems to have been tenderly conscious of this temptation-"Every time" (he remarked) "that I open the Scriptures, my thoughts are about a sermon or exposition; so that even in private I seem to be reading in public." We cannot live by feeding others; or heal ourselves by the mere employment of healing our people; and therefore by this course of official service, our familiarity with the awful realities of death and eternity may be rather like the grave-digger, the physician, and the soldier, than the man of God, viewing eternity with deep seriousness and concern, and bringing to his people the profitable fruit of his contemplations. It has been well remarked —that, "when once a man begins to view religion not as of personal, but merely of professional importance, he has an obstacle in his course, with which a private Christian is unacquainted."
Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry
In thinking through this postural problem, here are some questions for connection and consideration:
If you are in vocational ministry, have you merged the personal and professional to an unhealthy degree?
Are you dealing with first-hand knowledge of delight, or when you share something, are you pointing to a reality you struggle to enjoy?
Thinking of Hemingway’s quote, what kind of time are you spending to acquire a heritage of the Bible in your own life?
Next week, we will discuss a way forward to live by God’s Word.
Thanks for reading!
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I live in Flower Mound, TX, with my wife Carly, our three kids, and our chocolate lab. I pastor, teach, and lead at The Village Church, serving as the Executive Director of Discipleship. In my spare time, I’m working on a Ph.D. program in Church History, studying Jonathan Edwards and character formation.
I’ve written A Short Guide to Spiritual Disciplines: How to Become a Healthy Christian. If you read it, I’d love to hear what resonated or was encouraging.
Talk soon,
Mason
Parts of this newsletter have been adapted from a piece I wrote on my previous blog (Words and Phrases), and then later published on the TVC Blog when it was active.