Friday: Learning, Studying & Exploring
September 19
- Scripture: Romans 15:4 — “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
- Reflection: As humans, we were given the gift of intellect. Feeding our minds and our curiosity is another way that we grow spiritually, too. This is a hunger, the desire to learn and know, that we feed from our youth until our final days.
Studying the statements of holy scripture, the sayings of wisdom texts, the words of philosophers, the writings of thinkers, and the lyrics of artists, feeds our soul. We can discover universal truths across faiths, beginning with our own, and see them reflected in the beliefs of other traditions.
We can also immerse ourselves in the first text: creation … the natural world.
Learning helps us align our lives more closely with God’s vision for humanity and for all of creation. We are beings designed to grow and deepen throughout the course of our lives, from birth until death. We can always nourish the spirit and mind by studying and learning, or by teaching others. - Spiritual Practice: Find a teacher. Listen to a podcast, or choose a chapter out of a book, an article, or even a brief quote to explore today; take notes, reflect, and prayerfully ask how to apply what you learn. Or venture into nature and the world, and observe and learn.
Song:
- How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin: https://youtu.be/KBD18rsVJHk?si=a41F2LYtsqgTqsAU
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. — attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
Sept 19 Daily Devotional