Daily writing prompt

What was your favorite subject in school?

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For some reason my favorite subjects weren’t taught in school. I’ve had to explore and learn them on my own. They include positive thinking, creativity, self-control, character development, awe, openheartedness, forgiveness, hopefulness, kindness, gratitude, joy, inner peace, humility, world peace, and spiritual growth.

I could have used a course in each of those subjects, but that’s now history. In high school I started pursuing those subjects on my own. I began to read every book I could find that related to any of those subjects. I didn’t keep count, but I’ve read many hundreds of books about various aspects of personal, character, and spiritual growth.

As I read books, I underlined the many statements that stood out to me and touched me in some way. Then I hand copied those powerful thoughts in blank journal books. Today I have 34 books crammed full of the wisdom that I have pursued. Eventually that wisdom began to flow out of me and for more than a decade I’ve been writing original thoughts on those subjects, posting them on Facebook, and compiling them into blog posts. I’ve also written several books on those topics.

My favorite subject of all is the living resurrected Jesus Christ. I personally encountered Him as a freshman in college and have been continually captivated by His presence and reality ever since then. Even in three years of theological seminary I never had a course about how to listen to, follow, and obey the risen Jesus and to read the Bible with an open heart as a love letter from God. I’ve had to lean that on my own.

Here are my most recent thoughts about these subjects:

Wonder,
Marvel,
Ponder,
Until amazement
And astonishment
Arise in your heart.

• It’s time to break our dependence on the institutional Jesus and to reset Christianity on the living resurrected Jesus!
• Christians need heart-to-heart connection and Spirit-led community, not more sermons.
• Avoid a fictionalized Jesus. Fix your eyes on what the Bible says about Him!
• “I have treasured the words of His (God’s) mouth more than my daily bread.” –Job 23:12. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” –Jesus in Matthew 5:6. Following Jesus involves such intense longing for His presence and reality that you lose your focus on food as you hunger for and treasure Him more than you want to eat. It’s time to open our heart to “taste and see” “the surpassing glory” of “the ministry of the Spirit,” “the glory of that which lasts.” “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” (See 2 Corinthians 3:6-11.) The early Christ-followers, “sent on their way by the Holy Spirit,” were so caught up in their love for Jesus that they denied their own desires and opinions and obeyed His Spirit.