Think and Do

Sunday 2/10/2013 6:13 AM

I love the written word.  I enjoy the turn of a phrase, plays on words, etymology, double entendre, etc.  When I read something or hear someone speaking, the words enter my brain where they are dissected, checked for anagrams, homonyms, synonyms, and so on.  From there they are sifted through the sieve of my knowledge and experience where new thoughts and ideas emerge to be mulled over and eventually digested.  I could probably best be described as an intellectual contemplative.  I tend to think more than do.

Because of my bent toward contemplation, my devotional time is spent reading the Bible and other meditational writing, reflecting on what God is trying to say through it all and then journaling my thoughts and inclinations.  While discussing spiritual growth in her book The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life, Evelyn Underhill writes, “The necessary food for growth is obtained through our spiritual reading and meditation, as well as by more direct forms of communion.”  This point of view resonates with me but I know others for whom reading and meditation is nearly impossible.  Their bodies are wired differently from mine and contemplative reading is nearly impossible due to dyslexia or because they are easily distracted.

I remember my shock when I discovered that an individual from my church never read her Bible on her own.  Her only exposure to the Bible was when she attended corporate worship on Sunday morning.  I was aghast.  I wondered how she could call herself a Christian if she never spent time reading the Bible or other devotional materials.  Then she shared that she experienced God’s smile when she volunteered her time tending to those who were mentally disabled, when she brought a meal to someone who was sick or when she hosted a neighborhood block party, a biannual occurrence she orchestrated to build community.  Her intimacy with God was fueled by actions rather than thoughts and I realized that I was projecting my own proclivity upon her.

When I was in elementary school I learned to read using a book called Fun with Dick and Jane.  A workbook entitled Think and Do accompanied this reader.  I don’t remember all the intimate details of the book but think and do seems to describe the different ways God uses to grow his people.  God has created each of us with different gifts and abilities and, according to the Bible, he has placed us precisely where he wants us.  When each part of the body of Christ exercises his gift and develops it the body will grow.  Unfortunately, too often the body has an autoimmune disorder and attacks itself.  One part of the body judges another to be ineffective because it is not the same, much like I did my friend.  Perhaps someday we will remember to think and do.